The Wizard's Manual
by Elemarth
Summary: Several unusual students are admitted to Hogwarts a few years Voldemort's defeat, and they find a much changed school where inexplicable things are occurring. Crossover with Young Wizards, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings.
1. Chapter 1: The Hogwarts Express

**Chapter 1**

**The Hogwarts Express**

**[Fae's type of wizardry comes from the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. I try to explain it, but if you don't understand, you can check out ask me, or, best of all, read **_**So You Want to be a Wizard**_

**I began this story as a game with two of my friends just before Book 6 was published, and I finished it a while before Book 7 was, but it's AU, anyway.**

**When I began this, I had just seen **_**Finding Neverland**_** and fallen in love with Jonny Depp's Scottish accent. I apologize for Fae's accent and the running jokes that appeared about it.**

_I never would have believed that I could go to Hogwarts, _I thought as I waved good-bye to my parents and boarded the Hogwarts Express. Before I got the letter inviting me, I had thought that different kinds of magic couldn't possibly be used by a single person. _I _still _don't understand how that's possible. _

You see, there are three kinds of magic in the world. One is the kind you read about in Harry Potter – witchcraft and wizardry. Another, the oldest, is practiced all over the universe, relies on words, and is also called wizardry. The third goes by several names and in several guises, and relies on power of mind. Think of a Jedi. The funny thing was that I was going to Hogwarts to be a witch although I was already a wizard – the older kind.

The train left at exactly eleven A.M., a few minutes after I got on. I wandered down the aisle, looking for a car that wasn't full.

I looked into the back car. In it was one girl with oval glasses and short black hair wearing a shawl and reading a book. She was lying down on the seats and had put her suitcase on the seats on the other side. She clearly didn't want company, but I opened the door anyway.

"You don't have much of a choice about sharing a car with me. All the other cars are full," I informed her.

She looked up. "Well, one better than two."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"I'm not a people person."

"Well, I won't talk. I'll just read." I pulled out my wizard's manual, which gives me whatever information about the universe or wizardry it thinks I need and deserve, and asked for anything about Hogwarts. _Well, modern Hogwarts. _I knew enough about the beginnings from Harry Potter.

"The end of Old Hogwarts began…" it read.

_What, is there a _New _Hogwarts? _I wondered.

"Could you open the window?" the girl asked.

_Do it yourself_, I thought, but I didn't want to make enemies before I even got to school. And if she got ideas about ordering me around, I would soon change that. I opened the window.

"Thanks."

_All right, back to Old Hogwarts. _I started to read about the end of Old Hogwarts in Harry Potter's time. Then I realized I would get to know the end of the books before anyone I knew.

The door opened. A large, dark-haired boy stepped in. "What are you doing here?" he sneered.

"Sitting. Reading. Breathing. Hey! What…where's…?" The other girl had disappeared.

"Where's what? What are you reading?" He snatched my manual away from me. I hoped it would burn him. "Oh. One of the _new_ witches." He yelled and stared at his hand in horror, dropping my book. I saw that his fingers were burned where he touched my manual and smirked.

"Serves you right," I told him.

"Just remember, only traditional witches and wizards belong here."

"My kind of wizard is millions of years older than your kind!" I yelled. It was only after he was gone that I remembered that I wasn't going to make enemies before I got to school. _Well, there will always be those Draco Malfoys,_ I thought dismissively. _Even if there aren't many Malfoys left around here. _I became absorbed in my reading.

A bird fluttered through the window. "Dai Stihò," I said. It was the wizard's greeting.

"I thought I told you I didn't like people," it responded irritably.

The bird turned into the girl who had shared my car.

"What in the world… All right, what's going on?"

"I am a shapeshifter."

"A what?" I asked, not sure if I had heard right.

"Do I need to spell it out for you?" She turned into a snake. "Ssss, h, a, p, e, sss,"

"H-I-F-T-E-R." I said, rolling my eyes. "Yes, I know how to spell it. I've just never heard of one before. Is it magic?"

"No, I'm just someone who can shapeshift. Most of my family can do it."

"Are you…human?"

"When I am in human form, I am," she replied, becoming human as she spoke.

"I could get better answers from my man- I mean, my book," I corrected myself. Wizard manuals are _not_ known for giving straight answers.

"Your man?"

"Forget it." I tried to find my place again. "Does this mean I can talk?" I asked hopefully.

"I guess so."

"What's your name?"

"Dawna Porter."

"Potter? Like Harry Potter?"

"I said PORTER. P-O-R-T-E-R."

"Sorry. No need to shout. My name is Fae, Fate Destiny Laurence. Where do you come from? Not to be rude, but you have a strange accent."

"America. _You_ have the strange accent."

"I'm Scottish." I was surprised. I had thought that Hogwarts only admitted British witches and wizards.

"What's that language?" Dawna asked, looking at my manual. The Speech of Wizards is written in an alphabet like Arabic, so she couldn't read it. Anything and anyone can understand it if it is spoken aloud. However, intelligent creatures that have forgotten about the existence of wizards, such as humans, often lose their ability to understand the Speech as they grow past childhood.

"Well, I'm a wizard and this is my manual. It tells me things…how to do spells, how to contact other wizards…all sorts of things."

"A wizard? You're a witch. Not even. You'll be a witch after you graduate."

"You know, 'In Life's name and for Life's sake…' It is the beginning of the oath we take to become a wizard. We don't take classes. We learn from our manuals. Haven't you ever heard of that kind of wizard?"

"Oh, yeah, I have. You're pretty young for that kind. Don't most start at thirteen or fourteen? You must be powerful. I wonder what kind of classes they will have for people like us."

"Probably the normal classes, except for a few. You won't need transfiguration, for instance."

"No, I won't. And I don't think either of us will need Care of Magical Creatures, though it might be fun." Then, she actually laughed. I joined her.

"Enough talking," she said abruptly, stopping laughing. I scowled and tried to find my place.

Just then, a baby rabbit floated through the window.

"Oh, how cute," said Dawna, not seeming to realize that rabbits did not float through windows of moving trains every day. Even trains full of magic. In a moment, she was a rabbit.

I had a sudden urge to beat my head with my manual. If everyone at Hogwarts simply accepted such strange and entirely illogical happenings, I would just die. Wizardry is _logical_. That is why I like it.

"Have you seen a little rabbit float through the window?" asked a voice. A friendly-looking boy with blonde hair stood at the door.

"Wait a minute, how did you know a rabbit floated through the window?" I asked. At this point, I almost expected someone to shout out, "Candid Camera!" _This is a magical train; this is a magical train, _I chanted in my head to keep calm.

"I was aiming for my window, but miscalculated the speed of the train," he explained. "Oh, there it is." He picked up the rabbit, but then cried in pain and dropped it. His finger was bleeding heavily.

Dawna stood where the rabbit had been. "Do. Not. EVER. Do. That. Again."

"What…Oh, you're another one of the new wizards. There's my rabbit." He picked it up and sucked on his finger to stop the bleeding.

"You're already trying such complicated spells?" I asked. "How long have you had your wand?" He didn't look that old.

"Yesterday," he replied calmly.

"Then _how_ could you make a rabbit fly?" I asked in surprise.

"Well, you could say I'm a Jedi."

"Really? Are you an alien? Do you know Luke? I mean, is he still alive?" I asked in a rush.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, you're a Jedi. Don't you know about Luke Skywalker?"

"Of course, but it's not like I ever went to Jedi school. I don't know any more than you do. And as to whether I'm an alien, my great-grandfather came from Alpha Centauri, you know –"

"Aye."

"So you could say that I'm one-eighth alien. By the way, I'm Evan Bryant."

"I'm Fae Laurence and this is Dawna Po_rr_ter."

"Porrrter?" he asked. "What do you mean?"

"I meant not Potter."

"Oh, okay. Thanks for finding my rabbit!" He turned to leave.

"Hey! Are there other unusual wizards here?"

He came back. "I don't know." He left.

"Speaking of wands, why is yours glowing?" Dawna asked. She was holding my rowan wand in her hand.

"Give that back!" I snatched it away from her.

"I understand. I wouldn't like anyone to touch my wand," she said, nice for once. "But what is it?"

"It was a gift from a rowan tree, soaked in midsummer moonlight. Do you have a wand?"

She picked up a long, green fern.

"A fern?" I asked. "Your wand is a _fern_?"

"What, it is? Oh, sorry." It turned into a stick of wood. "Why are you beating your head against your manual?"

I stopped as my abused manual cried out in pain. "Don't ask."


	2. Chapter 2: Thestrels and the Full Moon

**Chapter 2** **Thestrels and the Full Moon**

**[This book takes place in the school year of 2001-2002. Therefore, Harry would have defeated Voldemort four years ago, but only the first four books would have been published. Fae doesn't know about thestrels, since they are first mentioned in the fifth book.**

**The deviation from the canon is a bit more obvious in this chapter. Hagrid, of course, should still be alive, but I hadn't even read Book 6 when I first wrote this, and I was sure that he would die after Book 5.**

A voice called throughout the train, "We will be arriving at Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train."

I itched with nervousness. Would they really let us in? My kind of wizard, a shape-shifter, a Jedi? _Well, we're here_, I thought. _This can't be a mistake. Besides, I'm not the only "new witch" here. I'm not alone._

I couldn't help but think, _what will the normal wizards think of us?_

I glanced at Dawna. She was staring out the window and appeared unconcerned.

"Do you think we should change into our robes?" I asked.

"Yes." She did not move.

"Are you going to?"

"No. Are you?"

"I guess I should," I replied cautiously.

"Then do it."

I put on my robes and then sat down, half considering making myself invisible, half scolding myself for being a coward.

_You can face the Lone One, the creator of all evil, alone, but you can't stand in front of a few hundred teenagers when you have thirty or forty behind you, _I berated myself. _What's wrong, afraid of being put in Hufflepuff?_

"What are you worried about?" asked Dawna.

"Nothing."

"Yes, you are. Sorting is easy; you just have to wait for the hat to tell you which house you belong in. It's not like you have to do anything. Is that it?"

"Everyone will be watching me."

"So?"

I sighed. "I've never been to school with a lot of kids."

"This isn't exactly a lot of kids. Only a select few attend."

"I didn't mean that. I mean that I've been home schooled since I was eight. Also, the school I went to before that was very small."

"Oh, so now you're people shy?"

"Sort of," I said, embarrassed. "I have friends, though. It's not like I don't know any other children." We were the last out of the train. I almost fell over from the wind. I glanced up and saw that the sky was still fairly clear, despite the stormy feeling.

Someone shouted, "First years over here." The man who was calling us was tall, strong and dark haired, but definitely not Hagrid. I was not surprised – I hadn't thought that Hagrid was going to survive the Harry Potter stories – but I was disappointed.

The first years fought the stiff wind to get to the man. He shouted, "We will not cross the lake in boats as we have in previous years –" his cloak flew off and he chased it, to our amusement, "– for obvious reasons. Rather, we will cross in the carriages that most students use. They are safer in hard wind than boats." He wrapped his cloak tightly around his body. Everyone else was doing the same, except Dawna, who was not wearing a cloak. I could see she was the smart one. "I'm Kevin Cameron. Come with me and you will see your first glimpse of Hogwarts," the man continued. Then, "Ferns are not allowed as pets!"

"Oops, sorry," said Dawna, turning her fern back into a wand.

"Where are your robes, anyway?" someone asked. Dawna didn't answer.

Then, we saw Hogwarts.

The sight was breathtaking. An ancient castle towered over the lake, silhouetted against the light of the stars and a full moon. Clouds kept blowing across the sky behind it, making it feel foreboding and frightening. It could have easily been Saruman's fortress from Lord of the Rings, or even Sauron's – _no, that is going a bit far,_ I laughed at myself.

Then, I saw the coaches we were to ride in. Well, more importantly, I saw what was pulling them. It was by far the ugliest thing I had ever seen. They were like black winged horses, but ones that had never eaten in their lives. They had white eyes without pupils and strange heads that were a bit like a dragon's. They looked like zombies to me, but they would not pull the coaches if they were dangerous, and whoever heard of horse zombies, anyway?

"What in the world is that?" I asked.

"What?" asked Dawna.

"Those things."

"What things?"

"There! Pulling the coaches."

"Nothing's pulling the coaches."

"What? You don't see them? Is it something to do with being a wizard or something?"

"You're a wizard?" asked a voice. I turned around. There was Evan, looking curious. "You didn't tell me that. I guessed you were unusual, but a wizard? Wizards don't need to go to school."

"I am eleven years old. Of course I need to go to school," I replied.

"Yes, but normal school, not ones like Hogwarts. I thought there was some rule about wizards not mixing with, um, I guess witchcraft and the other kind of wizardry…" He frowned, realizing the problem we would have with words. "This could get confusing."

"A rule made by whom?" I asked.

"Why would other kinds of magical people need to go to school, but not wizards?" asked Dawna.

"Well, wizards are supposed to learn from experience, and from their manuals. Other kinds of magicians are supposed to learn from other people. It's because wizards were created by the Powers that Be at the beginning of mortal intelligence so the Powers wouldn't have to be everywhere at once. Other kinds of magicians just came along. I guess we could call the two kinds of wizards school wizards and manual wizards," Evan explained.

"I thought that the One created wizards," I said. His explanation made some sort of sense, but I didn't know what.

"Well, I don't really know. You're the wizard."

"Slow down," Dawna said. "I know the One created the universe. Who are the Powers that Be?"

"The One created the Powers that Be to help It. They created most of the universe," I explained as we got into a coach. "Then the most powerful of the Powers that Be decided to make something different from what the others were making and created death and change. This lead to chaos and pain, which It hadn't meant to create, and war when the other Powers that Be were angry and began to fight It. The Lone One, as we call It, gained many foolish, power-hungry, or greedy followers. Still, It is never quite as strong as the rest of Its brothers and sisters."

"Oh, I remember now," Dawna said. It was a bit of a relief that she had at least heard these stories before, so I wouldn't have to tell everything, even if she needed reminding.

"And good wins over evil," added Evan. "Like the Jedi and the Sith."

The coach lifted off the ground suddenly. I felt like my mind had left my body far below, but it only took a moment before I stopped feeling like I was going to throw up.

"Do you see the skeleton horses?" I asked Evan in frustration, remembering what had started the conversation. I knew I wasn't crazy!

"No, I see nothing pulling the coach, but there is something alive there, not just magic. I feel it," he replied. "So you're not imagining things."

I stuck my head out the window. I enjoyed the feeling of the wind in my face, strange as that seems, though it tied my hair in knots. I saw that most of the carriages were far ahead of us. I remembered that the first years arrived after the rest of the school.

"Thestrels," Dawna said suddenly. "Of course. They have to be thestrels."

"What?" I asked.

"Skeleton horses, you said. I couldn't see them and Evan couldn't see them. I bet you are the only first year who can. It must be thestrels. Have you ever seen anyone die?"

"What are you talking about?" I glanced at Evan and saw to my relief he appeared to be just as confused as I was.

"Thestrels are flying horses that are supposed to be very ugly and even have been known to cause death at sight – I guess from fear. They are invisible until you have seen someone die. Have you ever seen anyone die?"

"I have seen the Lone Power," I said tensely. "The creator of death. Seeing It is worse than actually seeing someone die."

"Isn't it odd to come to Hogwarts, the best school of witchcraft and wizardry on Earth, on a stormy night when the moon is full?" Evan asked, sensing my discomfort on the subject of death.

I agreed with him and silently looked out the window. I wished it was calm enough to take the boats. I would have enjoyed seeing the lake close up.

"The werewolves are out tonight," said Dawna softly.

I turned around to see Evan giving her an odd look. "Yes?" he said in a tone that indicated that he would like to know where _that_ thought had come from.

"Thestrels and werewolves."

"What are you talking about?" asked Evan.

"Interesting things should happen tonight. An interesting night to start an interesting year."

"Don't try to understand her," I suggested quietly in Evan's ear. "She seems to be a little mad."

"I heard that," Dawna said in an unusually friendly voice.

"Can you turn into werewolves and thestrels?" Evan asked her.

"If I feel like it. I was debating doing it to scare you, but I decided that if anyone falls into the lake, I don't want to be responsible."

"How kind," I replied. "I am considering throwing you out the window and bringing you back up just before you hit the water, or maybe after, to scare you."

Evan's rabbit poked its head out of his robes. _Mean wizard,_ it said. _You need to be nice to the shape-shifter, young wizard. She could eat you if she felt like it._

"I don't think your rabbit likes me," I told Evan.

"Don't feel bad. She's like that. She just likes Dawna because she can turn into a rabbit, and me because I am her 'mother'. I found her before her eyes were even open. She'll grow to like you, as long as you don't threaten to hurt anyone."

I stuck my head out the window again, staring at the Forbidden Forest. Suddenly, there was nothing beneath me, and I began to fall. Strange things flashed before my eyes, I saw a centaur staring at the sky and I saw the stars. Then there was a flash of light, and I saw a Jedi fighting a Sith lord with its face covered by a hood. It became a being in a ragged black cloak that must have been a dementor, reaching for me with scabbed hands, but then grew and grew until it was the Nazgûl that Éowyn fights in _The Return of the King_. I saw a flash of lightning, and the Nazgûl had in its hands a ball with lightning in it, which became the moon reflected in the water, and I hit the water, but I somehow bounced a few times rather than hitting hard, and I kept moving forwards, slower and slower…

"Fae!" It was Dawna's voice. She said something else, but it was obscured by a huge roll of thunder.

I opened my eyes. I saw that I was on the floor of the coach with Dawna and Evan by my sides.

"The Forbidden Forest," I whispered.

"Are you all right?" asked Evan, looking shaken.

"The Forbidden Forest. What's in the Forbidden Forest?" I asked, sitting up.

"You know. Werewolves, centaurs, unicorns, giant spiders, intelligent trees –" began Dawna.

"All trees are intelligent," I interrupted irritably. "But how do we know something darker is not in there?"

"What, though? Voldemort is dead," Evan said seriously. "So are most of the Malfoys and almost everyone else who supported him. There might be a few left, but the war was over almost four and a half years ago. Voldemort's servants wouldn't have had time to become strong again. Besides, whatever made you faint is gone now. Are you really all right?"

"Aye. But something is wrong about the Forbidden Forest."

"Full moon," Dawna said as if that explained everything. "It does strange things."

"Come on out!" someone shouted to us.

"Don't tell anyone I fainted," I said to Dawna and Evan. "Or else."

"What are you going to do to us?" challenged Dawna.

"I won't be your friend anymore."

"We won't tell any students," Evan said. "But we should tell a teacher."

"No!"

"You're just being like Harry. You're just afraid that someone will think you're weak. Well, we know you aren't. Wizards cannot survive their ordeal if they are weak," Evan told me.

"I was _not_ thinking about that," I told him. It came out sounding ruder than I had meant it to. "I just don't think we should talk about it."

"Okay," said Evan. "And don't worry, I felt it too." But I could tell from the look on his face that he was not going to forget what had happened. Not that I blamed him, but I didn't feel like having him watch over me all the time.

"Ordeal?" asked Dawna.

"We have to pass a very difficult test to become a wizard. Many who fail it die," I explained. Then I said to Evan, "Don't worry. It must have just been the full moon."

"Uh-huh," replied Evan suspiciously.

As we were getting out of the coach, the clouds were gathering and the moon was obscured most of the time. The man knocked on the door of the castle. As it opened, we saw another flash of lightning, and rain suddenly poured down as if Peeves had dumped a bucket of water on us. I looked up to make sure that there was no bucket floating around and got rewarded with a water balloon.

"What a nice Hogwarts welcome, Peeves," said Cameron.

"It's not just Peeves; it's really raining." Evan pointed at the lake as a water balloon fell on his head. It looked like it was boiling with so many raindrops falling at once. "Peeves is just adding to the confusion. Very nice, Dawna." She had turned her clothes into a raincoat.

We entered Hogwarts.

**Happy February 29! It only comes once every four years!**

**Please review. The only payment anyone can get from fanfiction is reviews. If you like a book, maybe you buy it. If you like a fanfiction, then **_**review!**_


	3. Chapter 3: The New Sorting

**Chapter 3**

**The New Sorting**

**[It always annoyed me that everyone in Slytherin was bad, so I decided to change the houses a little… laughs maniacally **

**Okay, obviously it isn't realistic to change so completely, but I like it this way. And if you think that things are weird yet… just wait until the fifth chapter.**

Cameron, the man who had taken Hagrid's place turned to the first years. "Things are different now from what those of you who are muggle-born have read about in Harry Potter. You will sit at the same table tonight, so you can know each other as people in the same year, not just the same house."

He opened the door to the Great Hall. The best way to sum it up is: it truly is great. It is enormous. There were four huge tables besides the teacher's table. Three were filled and we filled the fourth.

I knew something was wrong, but I was sitting down before I realized what. If the first years had a table to themselves, why were there only four student tables? Then I realized the decorations were wrong, too. The Hogwarts shield, with a lion, raven, snake, and badger was right, but over the tables hung different banners: a silver crescent moon over a dark blue background, a golden sun over a violet background, and a green tree over a brown background.

"Things really have changed," said Dawna.

"I wouldn't know," Evan said. I never read Harry Potter."

We stared at him in amazement. "Why?" I asked.

"I don't read much. Besides, what's the point? I knew magic existed. I also knew Hogwarts was real."

The great hall suddenly became quiet. We looked up and saw a sharp-looking woman standing behind the table.

"Professor McGonagall?" I whispered to Dawna.

She nodded and frowned. "I was hoping to meet Professor Dumbledore."

"Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts!" she called. "Since the magical world is changing, we have seen it necessary to unite _all_ kinds of magic that are on Earth. We have invited several magic-users different from those who traditionally attend this school. They may not need the same classes as you, but this will be worked out next week. You are to treat them the same as you would treat a witch or wizard like you.

"I would like to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Elessar." There were a few halfhearted cheers. I guessed that no one really cared anymore, since he would be gone by the end of the year.

I did care. I was sure I had heard the name before, but where?

"We also have an announcement from our caretaker, Argus Filch. First, he would like to remind students that the Forbidden Forest is off limits. Second, a full list of forbidden objects can be easily found if you have forgotten."

I jumped in surprise as plates full of food and drinks appeared on the table. We served ourselves and discussed magic as we ate.

The news that we were "new" witches and wizards seemed to have spread around the first years. Some of them looked at us with something that could be considered fear. Others gave us looks of disgust. A blond boy caught my eye from the other end of the table and mouthed, _Dai stihò_. I pointed him out to Dawna and Evan and stared him for a while, memorizing his face.

Everyone finally finished eating, and the plates disappeared. Once again all faces were turned to the teachers. A young, red-haired woman stood up.

"First years, will you please come up here," she said. The students rose and wandered up to the teacher's table. There, on a stool, sat an old, ragged hat. The Sorting Hat. It opened its mouth and began to sing.

"I watched the beginning of Hogwarts

From Gryffindor's head;

I became the Sorting Hat

And students' thoughts I read.

But those in another house

The students learned to hate.

They did not all heed my warning

Until it was too late.

So Hogwarts was changed.

As triangle is stronger than square,

Three new houses were made.

The new teachers thought this fair.

Now, I no longer sort,

I only sing this song.

Open the door to your left,

To find the house to which you belong.

If you are strong and brave,

The House of Sun is your home,

Those friendly and outgoing,

The Sun also calls its own.

The Moon's house will be yours

If you are smart but shy.

Those intelligent and kind

Will find their home in the sky

The House of Earth is for the plain

Who strive to be the best;

Perseverance and hard work

Will put an Earth's heart at rest.

So, open the door and find your house

Your inner self will be brought to light;

And now, you must leave us,

Have a good year, and good night!

Everyone clapped and laughed at the song. I glanced at Dawna. "New houses. This is _really_ weird."

"Everything that has happened so far is really weird," she replied. I was glad that she realized that; I was starting to wonder about her.

"When your name is called, please open the door and walk through it," said the woman. "Bryant, Evan."

Evan walked up confidently and opened the door. I saw gold-and-violet decorations.

"Sun!" the woman told the hall. The left-hand table cheered.

I recognized a few: the boy who told me I didn't belong here on the train was "Daymon, Ryan," and in Sun, which was too bad because I wanted to be in that house. The wizard who had greeted me at the table was "Irvin, Steven," and in Moon.

"Laurence, Fate," the woman called. I couldn't move until Dawna pushed me forward. Then I walked up to the door, trying not to, as I had a tendency to when I am embarrassed, cry. That wouldn't help anything.

I opened the door and saw a gold-and-violet decorated room. Evan, Daymon, and a couple other kids were waiting for me there and welcomed me in. Except Ryan Daymon, of course.

We could hear the sorting going on from our Common Room. A couple of names later, Dawna walked through our door.

Finally, the sorting ended. People started talking to each other.

"There are thirteen first-years in Sun," Evan said.

"Oh." I said.

"Thirteen. Thirteen is an unlucky number. Or lucky. Depends on who you are," he added.

"Uh-huh. Do you really believe that? Superstition is for people who don't have magic."

"Well, some wizards and witches are superstitious," Dawna said. "Even worse than normal people. Remember divination in Prisoner of Azkaban?"

"That's _Professor Trelawney_. Don't judge everyone by a crazy seer."

The rest of our house entered the Common Room. I only waited long enough to see that they were starting a start-of-term party before I disappeared upstairs to the girl's dormitory. All my luggage was there next to my bed. I wanted to read about Hogwarts in my manual. Strangely, I was too tired and fell straight to sleep. I dreamed about fighting Voldemort.


	4. Chapter 4: School

**Chapter 4**

**School**

**(I had too much fun on the Elvish names. No, really. They embarrass me now. Sorry.)**

At home, I usually wake up quite early and get up the moment I am awake. But on my first morning in Hogwarts, I lay in bed for a while. _When I get up, _I thought, _my first day in real school will start._

Dawna was right; I was scared. _At least I have friends already,_ I reminded myself. _I think. _

Lying in bed had an odd effect: I actually fell back to sleep, though I wasn't tired. I was very surprised when one of the girls shook me awake. "It's time to get up," she said.

Someone tried to wake Dawna; she said something nasty and turned over.

"You're her friend, right? You do it," said a tall girl.

"Just a minute." I thought about it and said a careful spell. The covers pushed Dawna over the side and made her stand. Then I threw her uniform over her. Dawna said something even nastier once she found her way out from under her clothes and saw the other girls laughing like mad.

One of the prefects walked into the room. "What is going on here?" she asked.

"Dawna…wouldn't...wake…up," I said through laughter.

"She threw me out of bed!" Dawna shouted.

"No, the…the covers did," I giggled and started laughing again.

"Well, we're not amused," said the prefect and left.

"Who's she, Queen Victoria?" someone asked, and even Dawna laughed.

"Go to breakfast!" yelled the prefect, coming back in.

"Next time, wake up when we tell you to," I told Dawna.

"No, don't!" laughed the tall girl. "It's much more fun this way."

We were still laughing when we got to the Great Hall. I had forgotten to be afraid.

* * *

I remembered when I found out that we had Charms first. I wasn't at all sure that Dawna, Evan, or I could do anything with our wands.

When I told them what I was thinking, Evan said, "Well, a wand from Ollivander's shop chose me, so I must be able to do something. Where did you get yours?"

"Off a tree," I said. "Actually, the tree gave it to me when I first became a wizard. I wasn't expecting to go to Hogwarts then, but Ollivander said that I should use it instead of one of his wands."

"Out of curiosity, how long have you been a wizard?" Evan asked.

"Since spring. Where did you get your wand, Dawna?"

"From Ollivander's."

"Since when does he sell wands that turn into ferns?" Evan asked. He and I laughed.

"He doesn't," she said cheerfully, but she didn't look happy. She sat away from us.

"What did we do?" I asked. Evan shrugged.

Charms was certainly interesting, as our first charm was the levitating charm. As I had read the books, we taught Evan what we knew about the charm.

"Levio_sa_, not Levi_o_sa," I said, quoting Hermione.

I got it first, sort of using my own wizardry to mix with the power of my wand.

In the end, Evan dropped his wand and lifted his feather in the air using the Force. Dawna saw and, not to be outdone, turned hers into a bird.

* * *

I had been glad that Severus Snape was not at the teacher's table. I could just imagine what he would say about wizards like my friends and I. Still, I didn't like the potions master, Professor Slughorn, very much. He made me nervous, though he was always cheerful. I especially disliked how he kept calling on me, Evan, Dawna, or Steven Irvin, the other wizard, (we had potions with Moon) and paid more attention to us than the others. Steven told us that there were two other wizards of our kind in Earth, but we were the only "non traditional wizards" there. He was jealous that I had other unusual wizards in my house, while he was alone.

We made a simple potion, working with partners, on our first day. Halfway through making it, Daymon found an excuse to go up to the teacher's desk. I saw his hand move – he had something in it – and a few drops of liquid hit my robes. For some reason, I just stared as it burned through my robes.

"Fae, are you listening to me?" asked Steven, my partner.

He had been talking to me. What had he said?

Just as I thought that, a bit of the potion hit my skin. Everyone turned to look at me as I yelled in pain and jumped up, pulling the burned robes away from my leg. Steven saw what had happened. A good wizard, he stayed calm and said, "Professor Slughorn, I think some potion dripped on her."

It had stopped burning by then, but it still hurt. Steven helped me limp to the hospital wing.

I glanced at Daymon as I passed him. He was doing a bad job of looking concerned. I glared at him. _Don't pretend it wasn't your fault. I know you did it on purpose._

* * *

I was looking forward to Quidditch. I have always wanted to fly.

I must say I was a little surprised that there is still competition for the Quidditch cup in Hogwarts. If they were afraid of the houses being split up, they should stop all competition. Though the house point system is a good idea to keep people behaving.

The Quidditch class was only Sun. I wasn't sure if that was good or not. There weren't very many people, which was good, but I didn't have the extra support of another wizard like me.

_I'm as alone in Sun as you are in Moon, Steven._

_But we're not as alone as Dawna and Evan are._

My broom was very obedient. Of course, it might have helped that I ordered it to come to my hand in the Speech of Wizards.

Evan's came pretty quickly, too, but he might have been using the Force. Dawna had said before that why did she need a broom when she could just turn into a bird? But she was very annoyed that it took her ten tries to get her broom to her hand. Daymon managed to make his broom come on the first try. I couldn't help but be annoyed.

The thrill of flying! Being off the ground without having to concentrate on a spell is absolutely amazing, beyond words in this language. I know I sound dramatic, but if you have ever flown on a broomstick and don't understand my feelings, go back on the broomstick and think of it from the point of view of someone who has never flown.

Madam Hooch explained that first years and older students "uncertain of their Quidditch skills" would be allowed to try out for seconds on the Quidditch team, an idea that had disappeared in Hogwarts over the past hundred years. There would be a few alternate chasers and beaters, an alternate keeper, and possibly an alternate seeker per house. They would come to some of the practices. This way, if a player on the primary team was sick, hurt, or on detention during a Quidditch game, someone who had been practicing with the team could play, instead of someone who hadn't been on a broom for ages or nobody at all. Madam Hooch said something about this being because Harry Potter kept getting hurt for the last game of the season, so Gryffindor didn't have a chance to win the cup for a few years. She added that first years could be on the real team, but they would have to be extremely good.

I talked a lot to Dawna and Evan about Quidditch. Evan said he wouldn't play; it would be too easy for him to affect the movements of the balls, purposefully or not. Dawna was pretending to not be terribly worried about the tryouts, but I was sure she was.

* * *

Though I managed to pay attention enough in History of Magic to take notes, my mind definitely wasn't thinking about what the ghost teacher, Professor Binns, was saying.

What I was really thinking about was how to make my quill take good notes. It had to not skip anything important out of the lesson but not copy down every word Professor Binns said. But these thoughts also kept appearing in my mind:

_How am I supposed to make it seven years with several people who hate me in my own house? _It wasn't just Daymon. He had a few friends, two Sun girls in my year had made it clear at lunch that they didn't like having a new kind of magic around, and I thought that many people in the school were afraid of us. Of course, they could be upset because I had chosen a boy from Moon as my partner. I had gotten teased a bit about the two of us. Madam Pomfrey had healed the burns and fixed my robe in a few seconds, but when we moved on to more complicated spells, Daymon would find something much more painful and harder to cure. I was sure of it.

My mind moved to,_Will I get to play on the Quidditch team if I'm good even though I'm a first year? Would the captain be prejudiced against me even if I was good?_

_Why do the new houses seem like Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffyndor/Slytherin with new names?_

_How much more time in this class?_

_Some former Slytherins might be in Moon; there's no rule that Slytherins can't be quiet or shy._

Will_ I be good at Quidditch?_

_Was Professor Binns a man or woman? Does it matter with a ghost?_

_Why do Daymon and the others hate me?_

_Why shouldn't they? I'm strange._

_Why are there manual trained wizards here, anyway?_

_Why is there a shapeshifter from the States in a British school? Haven't any other schools integrated different kinds of magic?_

_Wasn't I trying to figure out how to make an intelligent quill? I could buy one, but I don't know when I would have the time._

_Is it possible for anyone but Hermione to pay real attention in this class?_ I looked around the room.

_Is Evan paying attention or just pretending? _

_How much longer in this class?_

* * *

There were only two interesting things about Transfiguration. The first was that Ginny Potter was the teacher. (I wondered where Harry was, though. You'd think they would live together.) In fact, that was what I thought about for most of the class. We weren't doing anything except taking notes. I really needed to get a note-taking quill.

Then, Dawna started transfiguring things around her. It started with her quill. It became a small fern identical to her wand. Evan covered a laugh with his hand. "Did your wand have a baby?" he whispered.

Dawna, annoyed, turned it into a stick with small leaves on it, then a golden chain, then a rolled-up piece of parchment about the size of her quill. Then, the parchment she was writing on became a large leaf. Then it was a piece of muggle notebook paper.

I sighed. "We aren't muggles here. Turn it back into parchment."

She said perfectly sweetly, "Whatever you want." The paper became parchment, and the quill became a small, black snake.

_Dawna, what are you_ thinking? _Are you mad?_

A girl behind us gave a choked gasp. Dawna was playing with the baby snake. Ginny – well, Professor Potter – looked over at us. I grabbed the snake just behind the head and pulled it under the table. Dawna took it from me and it became a feather again.

"What's wrong?" asked Professor Potter quietly.

"Porter had a snake!" said the girl.

"Where is it, then?"

"Fate took it away."

Most people call me by my first name because it's easier to say and remember than Laurence, but in this case, it wasn't a good idea. There was a ripple of laughter through the class, though some people didn't make the connection.

"What?" Ginny said, hiding her laughter.

"She's Fate Laurence. The one with the long hair."

I am always identified by my hair.

"I see," said Professor Potter. "What happened to the snake?"

Dawna held up her quill.

I knew exactly what Ginny was feeling. I had felt the same on the train.

"Miss Porter, I asked where the snake was. Snakes are not quills."

"This one is," I said, but quickly bit my tongue. This was Dawna's fault. I didn't need to get involved.

"Dawna is a shapeshifter, and she can change other objects, too. Especially her wand," Evan explained. Dawna shot him a scathing look.

Professor Potter looked skeptical. "Come see me after class, Miss Porter."

I couldn't concentrate at all for the rest of the class.

Dawna caught up to us later and immediately started scolding Evan for explaining what she was doing. Evan pretended to ignore her, but I could tell he was annoyed.

It was a while before I could get more than a word in. Finally, I shouted in the Speech, "Dawna, let me talk."

She was instantly silent. "What did Ginn – Professor Potter say?" I asked.

"About what?"

"Must you act so stupid? About whatever she wanted to talk to you about."

She shrugged. "I didn't get a detention, but she told me that if I ever turned anything into something dangerous again, I would get a week of detentions."

"Is that all?" I pressed.

"I'm not in Transfiguration class anymore."

I was relieved and disappointed. "What are you doing that period?"

"I have a few choices: Divination, Care of Magical Creatures, those are third year classes, or – did you know there's a class for sixth years in the Speech?"

"The Speech of Wizards?" I couldn't quite believe it.

"Aye," she said, imitating my accent.

"You're joking to see if we believe you," I accused.

"Nay." She grinned.

"I do not say that!"

"No, there really is."

"Brilliant!"

"But Ginny doesn't think I should take it because it'll all be sixth-and-seventh years. She thinks study hall would be good. And there's a wizard's chess class, but not in that period." She giggled. "Who would do a chess class when they're busy studying for their N.E.W.T.s? Anyway, I'll probably do Care of Magical Creatures. And, yes, I know it won't be Hagrid, but maybe that's good."

* * *

We approached Defense against the Dark Arts with mixed feelings. From Harry's story, we figured that we had a one in four chance of getting a good teacher. What was worse, some of the girls thought he was handsome, just like some had thought about Professor Lockhart.

He welcomed the class. "I am Valuial Elessar, son of Eradan, son of Aglar, daughter of..."

The names were interesting since they were clearly from an unusual language. It was one I vaguely recognized, and liked to hear, but I stopped listening after a few minutes.

Until –

"…Aragorn, son of Arathorn."

_What!?_

Of course, that was the name, Elessar. King Elessar. Aragorn. Suddenly, I laughed aloud. I knew what language the names were.

It was Sindarin, closely related to the Speech.

"Do you find something amusing?" asked Elessar.

"The names. Yours means Twilight Power. And the others are Lonely One, Glory…" I couldn't remember any more than that.

He looked at me intently. "You are a wizard, are you not?"

"Yes, sir."

"I am honored to be teaching in the year in which magic is becoming integrated. It shall be a fascinating experience."

I could feel Daymon's dislike.

I wondered if we were going to have to listen to this fancy English all year.

* * *

**Now, all you need to do is review… Thanks for reading so far!**


	5. Chapter 5: Meeting of Wizards

**Chapter 5**

**Meeting of Wizards**

**Slughorn probably wouldn't have kept teaching for so many years after Harry Potter (after all, he **_**had**_** retired), but I decided I wanted to give him a cameo and didn't want to make up my own Potions teacher.**

**Frighteningly enough, the random red-haired girl is more closely based on someone I know than any other character in this story…**

On Friday, my manual started humming. I wasn't sure what that meant, but since no one seemed to hear it, I assumed it was a message of some kind for me. I hadn't had much time to read my manual. Most of my free time, I preferred to play wizard's chess or exploding snap. Who wants more studying?

As soon as I could, I took it out of my bag. It opened to a page, which had this message: 

"_Come to the library after dinner tonight. You can bring your two friends._

_Leianna "_

I couldn't remember if I knew anyone called Leianna but I assumed she was one of the Earth wizards. Evan pointed out that she had Leia in her name – something only he would notice.

We brought our books into the library; not only could we study, but it was also an excuse if Madam Pince stopped us.

I saw Steven quickly. He gestured for me to come over. He was sitting with a black girl – Leianna. 

"Dai stihò, cousin," we said together. 

"Hi," Steven added to Evan.

"I heard that most wizards greet Jedi as cousins, the same they do to fellow wizards," Evan said quietly.

They looked at him for a moment.

"I'm sort of a Jedi in training," he added.

"We know _that_," said Leianna. "Um, Dai stihò."

She said it at the same time as someone behind me. It a boy, the other Earth wizard. We all sat down around the table.

"I thought we should all meet each other," said Leianna. "We never really talked in our classes." We had a few classes with Earth.

Evan's rabbit poked her head out of his robes. She surveyed the new faces thoughtfully.

_There are a lot of wizards here, _she said and hopped onto the table.

"Please," said Evan. "Don't let anyone see you."

"I only said to bring two friends," Leianna joked.

"Evan comes with his rabbit," said Dawna. Evan gave her an annoyed look.

"Just be quiet about it, okay?" Evan said softly. "I'm not really supposed to have a rabbit here."

Steven took a white mouse out of his pocket. The mouse and rabbit sniffed each other and settled down to talk in some magical-rodent language. Leianna said she had an owl. I mentioned that a cat lived with us. (My parents think they own her, but they don't. It's a common mistake.)

We introduced ourselves. The other boy was Tom. I couldn't help thinking about Tom Riddle, though I felt very guilty about it.

No one seemed willing to start a conversation. Finally, I asked tentatively, "Does everyone feel like half the school hates us?"

Tom sighed. "I think they're scared."

"Same thing," I said.

Evan said, "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to –"

"Hate, and hate –" continued Steven.

"Quit quoting Yoda!" I scolded.

Evan looked like he was either trying not to laugh or trying not to cry. When he calmed down, he said, "Lots of people are scared of others with unusual power. My older sister calls us a family of freaks and refuses to use the Force, no matter how much it would be useful."

"I'm sorry," whispered Leianna.

"That's worse than parents who don't accept that their children are wizards," said Steven. "Not accepting _yourself_ as magical…it's unimaginable."

"But really. What are we here for?" I asked.

"Ask the Transcendent Pig," suggested Leianna.

The Transcendent Pig is a being that was around before the Powers that Be were created, or at least the same time, has the ability to be everywhen at once (or, perhaps, from his point of view, every_where_ at once), and is supposed to know what the meaning of life is.

"I meant, why are we at Hogwarts? Why are there four manual-trained wizards, why only four, why us four, why a Jedi –"

"I know why I'm here," said Leianna, shrugging. "I'm a half-blood witch. My mother is nearly a purebred witch, and my father was muggle-born but went to Hogwarts. I think they were worried when I became my own sort of wizard – are you calling it manual trained? That's a better name – what if Hogwarts wouldn't take me? But I'm sure we're not the first manual-trained wizards here. I would think that the Powers that Be would try to avoid having people be trained in two kinds of magic, but if we were needed…"

We thought about that for a while.

I had some idea of why I would be chosen out of all the eleven-year-old wizards in Britain. But I didn't want to mention it. "Most importantly, why an _American _shapeshifter?" I asked.

"Do you have something against Americans?" Dawna asked accusingly.

"No, but Hogwarts is for British children."

"Lads and lasses, you mean," Dawna said. 

I groaned.

"Maybe no American school would accept her," said Tom.

"I thought so, too," I said. "The American schools won't take her, so Hogwarts invites a non-British student for the first time – well, maybe not the first, but it must be unusual. Is it that important that she goes to a magical school?"

"Maybe I'm the only shapeshifter in the universe," suggested Dawna. "Maybe Hogwarts wants to have me on their side."

"Nice try. There is an alien species of shapeshifters," Evan informed her. 

"Their side of what?" asked Steven.

"So I'm an alien, too?" Dawna asked. I wondered if she really thought this was a possibility.

"I never said that," Evan said patiently. "But are you sure you're human?"

"When I am in human form, I am."

This was beginning to remind me of the train ride.

A little girl with short, curly red hair appeared. She looked at us intently, said "Poke," poking Leianna's shoulder, and disappeared behind the bookshelf.

We stared at each other. I slowly put my head in my arms.

Suddenly, Tom burst out laughing. Others joined in. "This is so… ri-ridiculous," he stammered. "Can't…any…thing be…n-normal around…here?"

The other students in the library turned to stare at the six hysterically laughing first years. I could see what they were thinking. _What's wrong with them?_

Madam Pince stormed over and led us out of the library.

Quidditch tryouts were the next day. We had Quidditch class all the week before so that we would at least have some chance for a position.

Dawna and I were the two alternate chasers. She didn't bother to hide that she was excited. I _did_ bother to hide that I _wasn't_ terribly excited. After all, now I would have to learn to work with her…

I somehow managed to fit into all classes. I was actually pretty good at everything. I made sure to be as sort of a defense against people saying I shouldn't be at Hogwarts. It also made me some friends. I was quite popular whenever I could help people with a class they were having trouble in. 

Professor Slughorn sent us a message on Saturday to come to his office Sunday night. We had no idea why he wanted us there until I found that all the "unusual" witches and wizards were invited. As we had expected, he wanted to "get to know" us. He also gave us all sorts of treats to eat and bragged about all the people who he had helped to get to high places. He kept referring to Harry Potter. We decided later that if Harry had really accepted as much help from Slughorn as the teacher would have us believe, we had been misled.

Slughorn wanted us to join the club he had created, the "Slug Club." It was apparently full of people who were extremely talented and always had a good life because of their friendship with him. He said he lived on the things they sent him in thanks.

We decided he was a liar. Well, he didn't seem to mean to lie; it was just that the truth changed in his mind into what he wanted.

The only interesting thing we learned was that Harry Potter was an accomplished Auror, even thought he was only twenty-one years old. That explained why he wasn't with Ginny; he was always so busy. When Dawna asked, Slughorn said that Harry and Ginny often met, but Harry was rarely seen by students.

The next time Slughorn invited us to his office to meet the rest of the Slug Club, we wrote him a response written and signed by all six of us:

"If none of us ever become minister of magic, so be it. There are much more important things in life than riches, especially those given by others."

It was the end of being favored in Potions. This was bad for me; Potions is my least favorite class. I dislike dealing with a lot of dead things. But at least Slughorn was leaving us alone.


	6. Chapter 6: Lethifolds

**Chapter 6**

**Lethifolds**

**Things might start getting – ahem – **_**weird**_** this chapter. If they aren't already.**

**This is the second time I've replaced it in the past fifteen minutes. I hope I haven't missed any more mistakes.**

Halloween was creeping stealthily on the horizon. I got increasingly nervous as it came closer, and increasingly confused. Why should I be frightened of Halloween? I never had been before. No one else was. Well, Evan said a few things that seemed nervous, but he didn't seem frightened. He _never_ seemed frightened. I had a feeling he hid it because he was a Jedi.

It was three days before Halloween, and I was reading my manual. Usually it has a lot of information about whatever I'm dealing with at the moment, but it had very little information about Hogwarts. Maybe it thought that telling me what I wanted to know would cheat its fellow books out of some use. (Yes, manuals think. That wasn't just personification.) (At least, I _think_ they think.) I wanted to know more about Harry Potter. This was partly because several important things happened on Halloween in the first four books, and I wanted to know what happened on the other years. Also, Harry Potter was coming to Hogwarts on Halloween. And not just to see Ginny. It seemed that it was becoming a tradition for him to join the Halloween feast.

Anyway, I was reading my manual while Evan was playing wizards' chess with Jennifer, our best "ordinary friend" in the school. To think I could ever think of a witch as "ordinary"! Dawna was working on History of Magic work from Evan's notes. When I tried to make a note-taking quill, I ended up with one that wrote its opinion of what the lecture was about. This had taken weeks to make and I wasn't up for trying to fix it, so I just tried to pay attention in class. So far I could stay awake half as much as Evan (the house king of note-taking) could.

Suddenly, Dawna put her quill down and stared at the fire.

"Harry Potter is coming on Halloween," she whispered

"So?" I asked.

"Harry Potter. The boy that lived. The one who destroyed Lord Voldemort…He's coming here on Halloween. We'll meet him. He'll stay here overnight. Halloween night."

"Dawna, stop it. Finish your homework."

"Three days!"

I glanced at Evan. He was looking at Dawna intently with a strange expression on his face.

"She's mad," said Daymon, who was standing on the stairs of the boys' dormitory. His friends crowded around him.

"Porter's mad," someone called.

"_I_ know. She wants to marry Harry so she can really be Potter, not just 'Potter' misspelled!" someone laughed.

Daymon came and tried to put an arm around her. "I'm sorry, but Harry's married already."

Dawna stood up, knocking her chair against Daymon. He stumbled but managed to keep from falling. Her face was changing: cat ears grew out of the top and her eyes became almond-shaped and catlike. I put my manual down and stood next to her, ready to stop her if she got out of control, or protect her if she needed it. Evan was already standing on her other side. Jennifer joined me.

Dawna's mouth opened to show sharp, white cat's teeth. "Haa'oweeeen," she hissed. She changed her teeth back so she could add, "Watch out."

Then she left for the girls' dormitory.

Evan looked very disturbed. He wouldn't meet my eyes.

I couldn't concentrate on the story my manual told anymore.

* * *

Halloween dawned cold and rainy. The mood was fairly downcast, although we all looked forward to the celebration that night. I had dreamed about Voldemort who, for some reason, had a lightsaber, which he threatened me with but never used. Oddly, it wasn't a nightmare; it was quite exciting. Maybe that was because I had a lightsaber, too, and I used it…

Finally the feast came. We all came to the Great Hall, and there, at the teacher's table, was a man with green eyes behind his round glasses and dark hair mostly concealing a scar.

"Harry Potter," I whispered.

Dawna and Evan both seemed to tense a little.

"Let's just see what happens," Evan whispered to Dawna.

"Are you two keeping a secret from me?" I asked.

Evan shook his head. "You just don't feel it. I would tell you what I feel," he added, anticipating my question, "But neither of us know. I'm sorry."

I didn't really listen to the speech that Professor McGonagall gave. It was something about Harry Potter…but I didn't care. Even when Harry spoke, I didn't listen to the words. I just heard the words. And looked at him.

I wondered what he thought of being a legend in both the magical and muggle world. I knew I wouldn't like it.

It hit me then: my name would be known for generations. I was one of the first of the "unusual wizards," maybe one of the only ones.

And I also felt some of what Evan and Dawna were feeling. Some sense of foreboding. Something that wasn't right. Something that kept me from paying attention to what was happening around me. And, stranger still, I wasn't worried about my inability to pay attention.

When the food came out, I dragged myself back into the real world. I managed to join the conversations around me. Dawna was acting grumpy, but she always was. It was Evan I was worried about. He was ignoring everyone around him. Instead of eating, he played with his food with his fork.

"Evan."

He looked up.

"What's wrong?"

He shrugged. "Nothing."

"Evan. Please tell me. There is something wrong, and I feel it, too."

"Harry Potter," he said tiredly, as if he was reciting something he had memorized and said many times. "Something is wrong, and it has to do with Harry."

"The Forbidden Forest?" I asked. I had not forgotten my vision on my journey to Hogwarts.

He started. "Maybe," he said softly. "Dawna?"

"What?"

"Have you been in the Forest in Care of Magical Creatures class?" he asked.

"No, but we've been near it."

"Have you heard of anything…strange happening there recently?"

She glared at him. "Don't you think I would have mentioned it? You are my _friends_." She growled on the last word, as if it was something bad.

_How do we ever know what will make her mad? _I wondered. Evan and I hadn't figured it out yet.

Looking at Harry, I saw that he was studying my friends and me. I knew that he knew what we were. Our eyes met. He smiled and looked on.

At least he was a good person.

_Why should I judge whether someone is a good person by whether he accepts us? _ I wondered. _I am sure most of the people who hate me are afraid of me. That does not necessarily make them any more or less good._

By the time we went back to the Common Room, I felt energetic for the first time that day. I stayed up until midnight to do my homework. Finally, I was tired again. I crept up to my bed and fell asleep easily.

* * *

I woke suddenly.

I couldn't think what woke me. I hadn't just dreamed anything. I hadn't heard anything. The room was very quiet.

Sometimes I think that wizards use the Force in their own way. We have ways of recognizing other wizards, magic, the evil in a thing, and life forms that don't belong.

I heard a muffled sound from Dawna's bed. It wasn't at all unusual, but my "wizard sense," or the Force, whichever you like, told me that something was wrong. I grabbed my wand. It glowed at my touch, enough to see Dawna struggling under her bed sheets. Then her shape disappeared, as if she had shapeshifted. Something moved on her pillow. A mouse scampered out from under it. It was like a moving cloak, a _living shroud_.

The thought triggered something in my brain. _Lethifold._ Lethifolds were also known as living shrouds. I remembered the one spell that would destroy a Lethifold. I screamed, "Expecto Patronum!"

Of course, it didn't work. I was a first-year, and I wasn't even thinking good thoughts. I was thinking of the night a few months ago when I was stupid enough to read the muggle version of _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ before bed, and was afraid to go to sleep because lethifolds only suffocate sleeping victims.

What my shout did do was wake up all the girls. Some grumbled at me to let them sleep just a little longer. Some started to wake up, sensing my terror.

Dawna had turned into a huge cat and was tearing up the monster.

"Leave it, Dawna. It's dead," I said and turned on the lights.

A wailing sound came from the stairs, and Evan's voice shouted his favorite alien curse.

The prefect appeared, looking as disheveled as if she had just rolled out of bed. Which she had. "No boys in the girls' dormitory, don't even try!" she yelled down to Evan. "What is going on here?"

Dawna's bed, most of Dawna, some of me, and half of my bed was covered with green-black blood. "A lethifold," I gasped, trying to calm down. "Everyone's all right, I think," I shouted down the stairs.

"You'd better come down and tell us what happened soon," some boy replied.

"It can't be a lethifold," the prefect said. "They only live in tropical climates." Then she called to the boys, "Someone go get Professor Potter."

"I was nearly killed by something that wasn't there?" asked Dawna quietly. She picked up a shredded piece of the monster. I shut my eyes. I can't imagine how she could touch something like that. "What do you think this is?"

Ginny's voice was already in the common room. She ran up the stairs and stopped to stare at the sight. All the girls were awake to some degree by then, but it seemed that only a teacher in their bedroom could wake them up all the way. They finally all got out of bed. Most clearly had no idea what was going on.

"What happened?" asked our head of house.

"A lethifold –"

"Couldn't be –"

"What's that stuff?"

"Dawna –"

"Quiet!" Professor Potter ordered. "Miss Taylor, would you please tell me?"

"I don't know, Professor. I woke up and the room was like this," said the prefect. She pointed to me. "She says it was a lethifold, but it couldn't have been. How would it get here?"

"Under the portrait," I suggested.

"I meant, how would it get to England? But that's a good point. How could it get into the castle? There isn't space under the door. Or under the portrait," the prefect argued.

Dawna was the one who told the story. "I was partly asleep, so at first I thought I was dreaming. But dreams don't make people cold, and this weird coldness was creeping up from my feet, like walking through a ghost or something. And then, I couldn't breathe, and it wouldn't go away, so I turned into a mouse to escape and then into a panther to kill it. I don't know what it was."

"It was a lethifold; it had to be," I interrupted. "That's exactly how they are described in _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them._"

Ginny walked over to our beds and stared at them. "I – something has happened in Earth, I don't know what. Stay in the Common Room, all of you. Miss Porter and Miss Laurence, come with me."

We followed her and met Professor Sprout, Earth's head of house, the astronomy teacher, Moon's head, a fourth-year girl, and Steven. Harry came running.

"Lethifolds," said Professor Sprout. "Three of them – two in Moon and one in Earth."

"And one in Sun," added Professor Potter tiredly. "Is anyone…?" she asked, afraid to finish the sentence.

"The wizards woke up," said Ginny. "The new wizards."

I said quietly, "Of course. We should have. We can sense that sort of thing."

"She almost died because Steven Irvin couldn't get upstairs to save her." Ginny gestured to the girl with him. "The alarm – the one that goes off when a boy tries to get into the girl's dormitory – woke everyone up, but it took a minute before they realized someone was suffocating, and then someone had to conjure a Patronus. She's all right now, but…"

Professor McGonagall appeared, panting. I felt some relief. Even if she wasn't Dumbledore, she was the headmistress and a _very_ good wizard. "Is everyone all right?" she asked. "I think the students should stay in the Great Hall tonight. Someone had to bring the lethifolds. None have ever been captured before, though…" She seemed to notice the four students for the first time. "What are they doing here?"

"If we needed explanations, we needed witnesses," Ginny replied. "Come, Porter and Laurence. We'll meet you in the Great Hall," she said to the adults.

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**Please review! I want to hear what you think of my story. Even if it's bad, as long as you tell me politely, my ego will recover. **

**Eventually. **

**Okay, I'll be fine. Just review.**


	7. Chapter 7: The Forbidden Forest

**Chapter 7**

**The Forbidden Forest**

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**I'm not sure what I can say to make things more clear in this chapter, but I'll try. **

**From the Young Wizards: There is supposed to be a way to send messages by manual, and swearing by Life's name is, I think, very significant/powerful. **

**Otherwise: Quickbeam is the "hasty" Ent from Lord of the Rings. I haven't seen the Two Towers movie, so I don't know what that has of him in it. Kit is just weird.  
**

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We were walking to the Great Hall when my manual started humming. I pulled it out, and the page it opened to said:

_Young wizards,_

_We must speak with you. Please come to the edge of the Forbidden Forest tonight if you can. We swear in Life's name that we will not hurt you._

Sleeping bags had appeared in the Hall where the tables used to be. I sat down and whispered the odd message to Dawna and Evan. I told them I had no idea who or what this was from or what to do. Not many things swear by Life, I added.

Evan's response was surprising. "Evil is here. Darkness. I'll go."

"Well," I said, "you give us no choice."

My manual started humming again. It said:

_ Did you just get a really weird message?_

_ Tom and Leianna_

I replied:

_ Yes. Evan, Dawna, and I are going._

_ Fae_

Almost as soon as I finished writing, I got:

_ Something sent me a message to meet at the Forbidden Forest. Should I go? I don't know what to do._

_ Steven_

I sent to him, Tom, and Leianna:

_ I will go. If you are coming, meet us outside the Great Hall, invisible, after everyone has settled down._

_ The moon will be full tomorrow night._

_ Fae_

Dawna turned into a mouse to keep me from being forced to keep all three of us under a spell. I only had to keep Evan and myself invisible. But if we were caught, it would be my fault. It was my spell, and, worse, they wouldn't have left the Great Hall without permission if it weren't for me. It was a big responsibility. We would be in enormous trouble if anyone saw us.

I almost lost my concentration in fear when Harry looked our way. But his eyes slid off us as if we were covered with slippery, unreal oil. We made it out safely. I started to relax before I realized that _that_ had been the easy part.

The six of us met. Tom quickly took Dawna under his power so she didn't have to stay a mouse. She had told us that the greater the size change, the more exhausting her shapeshifting was.

"Dai stihò," I said. "What are we planning to do?"

"I was hoping you would know," said Steven.

"We'll sneak out of the school, wait at the edge of the Forest for the centaurs or whatever, find out what they want, hope they keep their oaths, run away if they don't, sneak back in, and try to not get caught. What could be easier?" asked Tom sarcastically.

"Do they count as wizards?" asked Leianna, indicating Evan and Dawna.

"Shouldn't we?" asked Dawna

"It's just that in the Speech, we have a distinction between different kinds of magicians, and 'wizard' is very descriptive," Leianna explained.

"You might need me, in case they don't keep their promises, whoever they are," said Evan. He touched something under his robes.

"Let's get out of here before someone notices that six first years are having a conversation _outside_ of the Great Hall," I suggested.

"Brilliant idea," said Leianna, half-joking.

We crept out of the castle. You'd think, after all these years, the teachers would charm the doors to let no one out or in, but the locks opened the moment Tom started to talk to them in the Speech. Almost as if they were eager to let us out. Maybe so many people do it that the door and the locks don't mind anymore.

The moon, almost full, was veiled by clouds. This was good in that no one could see us even without invisibility spells, but bad because we couldn't see.

Something struck me.

Actually, two things. One was a raindrop. I walked faster. The other:

"Evan, do you have a lightsaber? In your cloak?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Cool!" whispered Dawna.

"Where did you get it?" asked Steven. "I thought you had never been away from Earth."

"I haven't. My grandfather gave it to me. I think he made it, but I'm not sure. It's not a very good lightsaber, anyway."

"So what?" I asked. I didn't quite know what he meant by a "good" lightsaber.

It had begun to sprinkle with rain. We put up four different shields against the rain. It should have been one shield, but we didn't have time to figure out how to work together.

We stood at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, enough under the trees so that we could let down our shields and stay dry.

"It didn't say _where_ on the edge," I said, looking for something coming to talk to us. Evan's rabbit jumped out of his robes and sat, shivering, on the ground.

"I don't see any centaurs," said Tom.

"We don't know it is centaurs," pointed out Evan.

"What else could send us a message from the Forbidden Forest?" asked Steven.

"Maybe it doesn't usually live there," Dawna suggested. "Maybe it's a wizard."

"Or one of the Powers that Be," I added.

"Or…" Steven left the sentence hanging.

"That One doesn't swear by Life," I scolded him. I didn't want to even think about the Lone Power on a night like this.

"Maybe it's a werewolf who is going to transform tomorrow," said Dawna.

Almost as soon as she said that, a small wolf wandered out of the forest.

"Is that a werewolf?" I asked nervously.

"It must be," said Leianna. "It's in these woods."

The wolf stopped, looked at us, and turned into a red-haired girl. I decided it would be unwizardly to "freak out," as Dawna says, because of a little girl. But the only natural shapeshifter I had ever heard of was Dawna, and it takes years of study to become an animagus.

"Poke," the girl said calmly. I could feel my eyes widen as I realized that she was the girl that had appeared at the library the first time all four of us wizards met. "Hi. It's okay. I can control it."

"How did you do that?" asked Leianna in a tight, frightened voice. Her hands were covering her mouth as if she had tried to cover up a scream.

"I'm a werewolf-animagus," she explained cheerfully.

I heard something above us. Something said, "Kit…stop frightening them," very slowly from the trees. Evan's rabbit leapt into Kit's hands in terror. She stroked it to calm it.

"Sorry," she said.

"What's that?" I asked, looking above us for something. What could it be? A centaur in a _tree_?

"Quickbeam, of course," said the girl.

"What?" asked Evan.

She rolled her eyes. "An Ent. What else?" She let the rabbit jump to the ground, turned into a wolf, and ran back into the woods.

"What!" Tom shouted.

"What's an Ent?" asked Dawna.

"Have you read Lord of the Rings?" I asked.

"No," Dawna said sulkily. The tree was positively laughing now.

"You've been watching us this whole time!" accused Leianna.

"It was the best show I have seen since Fred and George Weasley left," the tree said in English. "They were the only students nearly as amusing as you six children are."

"Did it call us here?" Evan asked me. He obviously wasn't used to talking to trees. Not that I blame him. It is odd, to say the least, the first time.

"I did." The Ent sounded sad now. "We are afraid. We have been afraid much lately. Once… when the Dark Lord was killing unicorns to keep himself alive… and then the battles with the Dark Lord… and now."

Quickbeam wasn't as quick as he was supposed to be in Lord of the Rings. He was speaking so slowly, even Evan, the patient Jedi, was getting impatient.

"What's happened?" he asked.

Quickbeam sighed. Another tree moved slightly closer. "Something is here… Something that I have hardly seen before… and not since I was very young… not after the War of the Ring… I cannot remember what it is."

"You can't remember?" I asked, annoyed.

"Sometimes… the Powers that Be do not allow mortals to remember certain things… make certain connections…"

"Or the Lone Power," whispered one tree in the Speech.

"The Lone Power is here?" asked Steven worriedly.

"Hush!" Quickbeam whispered.

"What?" asked Evan. I remembered that he spoke very little Speech. I explained what the tree had said. I didn't think Dawna could speak to trees very well, either.

"Can no one remember?" Dawna asked.

"I am the oldest one here. I am the only Ent left. I am the only one who can remember the War of the Ring – not even the stones can remember." He spoke more quickly when remembering his youth.

"How did you survive this long?" asked Leianna. "The war of the Ring was over a thousand years ago."

He shuddered. "I was given the gift…or curse…of a life of thousands of years."

"Um," said Evan. "Not to change the subject, but how long have we been out here?"

"A long time. Doesn't matter. Is that all you know about what is happening here?" I asked desperately.

"Yes… We need you to help us."

"With what?" Leianna asked in frustration. "We can't help you if we don't know what you need help with!"

"If I knew, I would do it myself. I am sure though, that…It…is here. The Starsnuffer, the kindler of forest fires…"

"Don't get poetic. We all know who you are talking about," Evan said.

"We never speak of It here… There is too much power near."

"He's a poet and –" Dawna joked.

"Dawna –" I sighed.

"Hello. What have we here?" said a cheerful voice behind us.

We spun. I stumbled a step and stepped on Dawna's foot, but she was too astonished and, probably, frightened, to yell at me. Somebody, I think Leianna, squeaked in surprise. It was the caretaker of the grounds, Kevin Cameron.

I started to run, although I knew we would still be caught. But we were already trapped by a spell. I couldn't move.

"Six first years out at night," said another voice. Argus Filch. "Well, well, well. What are we to do with you."

"Leave them to me, Argus," said Cameron.

Filch grumbled and left. I guessed it was because Cameron was a wizard and could curse Filch if he felt like it. I doubted Filch would pass up a chance to get students into trouble.

The spell holding us in place lifted. "I would think, as the only representatives of your order of wizards and witches, you would take care to make a good impression," the groundskeeper said. "But instead, all of you are out here, and on this night of all nights! Don't you know that a very powerful dark wizard must have brought the lethifolds here? And it might still be on the grounds?"

"We didn't think it could have been a wizard," Tom answered quietly.

"What then? But that is beside the point." He started to lead us back to the castle. "We don't make rules to be mean. We don't make rules to be broken. We make them to keep students safe."

Evan glanced behind us. I followed his gaze. A small wolf followed us.

* * *

"Fifty points each!" I complained to Dawna. "Doesn't she remember what it was like to be a first year? Hasn't Harry or Ron or somebody _told_ her?" I added to Evan, "Hermione, Harry, and Ron got fifty points off each in their first year for…I think it was the troll?"

Dawna shook her head, scowling. "Harry and Ron both _earned_ five points from the troll. It was giving Norbert to Charlie."

"And so Ginny passes on the favor to the next generation," I finished. It added up to 150 points for Sun, 100 for Earth, and 50 for Moon. At least it wasn't just our house, but we _were_ hit hardest.

We didn't get any more sleep that night. It was too late by the time we got to the Great Hall. And we were too worried. And too upset about being caught. It turned out Daymon had realized we were missing and Filch somehow trailed us outside. More reason not to like that boy.

I was frightened. We were all frightened. Even Evan.

I was so frustrated. I kept getting hints, little bits. Never the real thing.

I tried to read my manual. Sometimes it gives me answers. Often it makes me less frightened. Or more. Either one would be a relief from frustration.

I only got to read two sentences before it was time to get up.

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**This chapter was particularly hard to post because, for some reason, it seems to have been skipped over by earlier editing. I had no idea how bad it was until tonight. But I hope it's better now.**

**Please, please, please review!!**


	8. Chapter 8: Fears

**Chapter 8** **Fears**

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**Apologies! I posted this chapter straight from Microsoft Word and forgot to put in the lines as space breaks, and this chapter has more than most of the others. I suddenly realized this _after_ I was supposed to be asleep (we go to bed early in my family), and I didn't want someone to hear me, come out, and wonder why I was in the living room on the computer at _that_ hour. I wish I had a computer in my room. I did go out and delete the chapter so I wouldn't confuse everyone who tried to read it. I hope that reposting it will re-send the email to everyone with story alert.**

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**Thanks to The Director of Words for reviewing and putting me as a favorite author. I really appreciate the appreciation! **

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**This chapter contains the first and, hopefully, last Quidditch match I will ever write. This is by far the longest chapter of the story. It was originally two, "Quidditch" and "Boggarts," I think, but I shortened the match and merged them. I hope that doesn't make it too hard to read. I think it's hard enough to follow already. That's the inconvenient part of being the author – I'm not quite sure what other people will understand.**

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November brought the first Quidditch match of the season. It was Sun against Moon. We expected to win easily. Moon was almost all second years. Most of their players, including their seeker, had graduated. There was one very good Chaser, but only one.

But it seemed that the Fates were against us (no pun intended). We were practicing when one of the chasers failed to dodge a fast bludger. She was knocked out. Our captain, Sarah, a chaser, shouted at the offending beater until the beater was reduced to tears. We thought we might need an alternate beater to play. We were nearly sure either Dawna or I would have to take the Chaser's place.

We didn't know who would be playing until after breakfast before the game. Maybe Sarah hoped the other Chaser would feel better before the match. Sarah pulled us aside after we were finished eating and told us that Dawna was playing.

"Why Dawna? I'm almost as good with the Quaffle as she is, and I fly better."

"She scores more goals in practice," Sarah explained as Dawna scowled at me.

"That's because she turns her eyes into hawk's eyes so she can throw from farther away," I complained.

"You'll be in the game the next time we need an alternate," Sarah assured me.

"If that ever happens," I muttered.

"Is Robert playing?" Dawna asked, referring to the beater.

"Of course. Do you think I would let him not play just because he's upset that he hurt someone? He needs a better excuse than that. He's an okay Beater, better than most who tried."

"You shouldn't have yelled at him. He wouldn't have been so upset if you hadn't," I said. "He's only a second year."

Sarah scowled. "And you're only a first year. You don't have any right to scold me."

I was very glad Robert was playing. Even if he didn't have good aim, he hit hard. Besides, Daymon was an alternate Beater. (He wanted to play Seeker, the most respected position, but was too heavy.)

I shouldn't be jealous of my friend getting to play. I would be safe, she would be helping our house, and she was a little better than I was as a Chaser. I still thought I flew better. Maybe it was because I talked to the broom.

I suggested to Dawna to turn her Nimbus 2000 (it's a pretty old model now) into a Firebolt 2. She reminded me that she wasn't allowed to change any brooms or balls. Then I wished her good luck and told her I was sorry I complained about her being chosen. I didn't want to get her mad at me. And she was my friend.

The day was cold and rainy. Still, almost the whole school was out to see the game. I sincerely hoped Dawna did well. It wasn't often that a first year played in the first game – okay, that they played at all. I could hardly have been more nervous if I had been the one going out to play. I had spent all the time I had to talk to her telling her she'd do well. She just got insulted. "Don't you trust me?"

* * *

"Mount your brooms, please," said Madam Hooch.

I looked at Dawna, in her violet Quidditch robes, and wished I could be there. _Lucky._

"You shouldn't be jealous of what you don't have," Evan was saying. "You should appreciate what you _do_ have. You should be happy you can watch a good Quidditch game. If you lived in the muggle world forever, you would only get to see Quidditch in the Harry Potter movies. You even get to play Quidditch in practices. You shouldn't be jealous."

"Stop being all noble and Jedi," I said. The best way to annoy him is to verb or adjective the word Jedi.

Madam Hooch blew the whistle. The game began.

Sarah got the ball right away. She threw it to Eric Allan, the next-oldest Chaser.

I pulled my coat closer around me and hoped someone had given the players' robes a heating spell. I was cold, and I wasn't even whizzing through the air.

"And Allan's got the ball, going to score – No, a Bludger's coming his way – he drops the ball – Joseph Chant, Moon Chaser, got the ball – going back, he has the whole field to fly over – Guess Moon has some good players after all, not that I ever doubted it – He's going to score, no one got him to drop the ball – Sun Keeper trying to block – He blocks!"

"Another bad thing about giving the houses new names…" I muttered to Evan and Jennifer. "I mean, Moon Chaser, Sun Keeper, sounds like somebody from ancient myths…"

"You have been studying too hard for History of Magic," Jennifer replied.

"Sarah Smith's got the Quaffle – Wait, Chant's got the Quaffle back – how did he do that? Oh, one of Moon's Beaters intimidating Smith – It's legal, he didn't touch her – Moon scores!"

I groaned. _So much for slaughtering them._

"Dawna Porter – That's Porter, not Potter – got the ball – she's a reserve, only knew she was playing this morning – She's gone way up high – A Bludger's been sent up there – no one's following her, guess they're hoping the Bludger will do it – Oh, they're all gathering near the goal posts – the other Bludger's been sent into them – a beater sent it away –"

"Good play," I told Jennifer. "They have no idea what she's planning."

"Neither do you," she pointed out.

I knew how good a player she was. She scored from high above the goalposts.

I grinned at Dawna. She gave me a thumbs-up symbol.

We scored another goal. Moon's Keeper was the fourth year, the captain, and pretty good. Not as good a player as Joseph Chant, though –

"Chant scores again! Amazing he's only a third year – think how good he'll be when he graduates –"

We had been warned of Chant. He had gotten on the team – barely, but still on the real team – in his first year. He had been flying since he was five. He embarrassed all the older students.

Our three chasers were tossing the Quaffle between them, trying to avoid anyone attacking a single one of them. We made another goal. The Keeper had been very confused and attempted a Double Eight Loop since he didn't know until the last minute which side the Chaser would be entering the scoring area from and was on the wrong side when Allan threw from just inside the area. I decided that "pretty good" was a compliment for that Keeper – he hit one of the goal posts directly after the goal.

After the game had gone on for an hour, we were winning 40-30 and the Snitch hadn't been sighted yet. Then, the sun came out from behind the clouds. Everyone was temporarily blinded. It was only for a moment, but Moon's Seeker suddenly shot near the stands and into the air as though he had sighted the snitch.

I squinted through my binoculars. "Is he feinting?" I asked Evan.

He looked up. "I'm not sure."

One of Moon's younger chasers had the ball and was speeding towards the goal. A Beater hit a Bludger her way.

"Go for the Seeker!" I yelled. "First rule in the _Beater's Bible_!" I have read the _Beater's Bible,_ of course. As Evan says, know your enemy. And in Quidditch, my enemy was the opposing Beaters.

The Seeker dove towards the ground. Joseph had possession of the ball. The Bludger was still following the other Chaser. Our Seeker joined the other one. They met in midair. Painfully.

A time-out was called. Everyone was arguing about whether the accident had been intentional. Some thought that our Seeker had been trying to keep Joseph from scoring. We found out that the Snitch had really been sighted. Sarah scolded the Beater for attacking the Chaser rather than the Seeker. It was not the same Beater that had knocked out our Chaser, fortunately; I didn't think he could stand being yelled at again.

It was a full ten minutes before the Seekers' bloody noses and smashed fingers were fixed. There was no foul called.

The game wore on. An hour and a half, I was getting bored. We were tied, six to six. I really wished the sun would come out again and the Snitch would be caught.

Before I knew what was happening, Sarah, who was carrying the Quaffle, was being attacked from all sides by three Chasers and a Bludger. The Bludger hit her broom, she fumbled the Quaffle, and she swerved into a Chaser by her side.

She lost her grip on her broom and fell. Evan narrowed his eyes in concentration, trying to catch her with the Force. I saw Ginny say some spell. The Bludger was still following her.

I shut my eyes. I couldn't bear to watch her fall.

"Looks like you're going to play after all," Evan said quietly.

"Is she hurt badly?" I asked, my eyes still shut.

"Well, it looks like what I should have done is slowed the Bludger, not her. You can look."

"She might play again," Jennifer said. "Don't get you're hopes up – well, maybe you can."

I opened my eyes. I thought that it wasn't any fun getting to play just because our captain was knocked out. I climbed down from the stands with a sinking heart. I knew I was going to cry if I wasn't careful. I wondered if this was all because Sarah was hurt or I was just nervous.

The team went to the locker room so I could change into Quidditch robes. Everyone else changed out of the soaking wet robes as well. Then the Seeker faced us.

"Just because our Captain is out of the game doesn't mean we are out of the game," he said. "We need to keep playing just as well as we would have if she were still playing. Two of our Chasers may be first years, but that isn't going to stop us, is it? They are good players. We can still win."

"You had better find the Snitch quickly," Allan said quietly.

"We'll do fine," I said, pretending I believed it. "I'm not all that inexperienced, and Dawna's made a goal already."

I was out on the Quidditch Pitch, my hair plaited to keep it out of my face, the spells to keep water off Dawna's glasses and heat in our robes renewed, and me flying on Sarah's Nimbus 2020 which had been caught a moment before.

I hoped I wouldn't break it.

* * *

"Porter's got the ball now –" We had been playing for several minutes. "She threw it to Allan, he's going to score – no, threw it to Laurence above him – She doesn't seem to know what she's doing – Why did you throw it back to Porter, Laurence?"

The tears came out then, hot and then freezing in the cold air. It was raining again. I was too much of a coward to even try to score. Allan had wanted me to, I knew. He could have done it himself, but he had given me the chance. I swore to myself that I wouldn't lose my nerve the next time.

Dawna missed.

I wiped my eyes with the sleeve of my robes. I was getting what I had wanted all game, the chance to play. Why should I be crying? Besides, I was a wizard. Wizards didn't lose their nerve and cry because of_ games_. They only cried if their sister died or something –

I violently banished thoughts of my sister from my mind. I was playing Quidditch here.

"Chant has the ball again – he's fast, should be a Seeker, wasted as a Chaser – He's going to score – Sun Keeper blocks! Dawna Porter has the ball again – She's going low this time – she doesn't like being near other people, does she?"

I laughed to myself. That was true. Dawna never liked being near many people. I hadn't realized her views on life extended to Quidditch.

"Allan Dane has the Quaffle again – Moon Keeper blocks! But Laurence caught the ball – is she going to do it? – Yes, she scores!"

My personal thought was that Moon's Keeper wasn't watching me because he thought I couldn't score. Ha!

The rain was getting much harder now. It felt like cold needles against my face if I went too fast. I had trouble seeing in the darkness. I was starting to feel like I was at the bottom of the lake instead of high in the air.

I saw lightning above the Forbidden Forest. I looked at Dawna – had she seen it? She was chasing after the other Chasers who were trying to score. She didn't seem to be worried. I looked at Evan. He was looking towards the Forest. He turned, caught my eyes, and shrugged. _It is a storm_, I reminded myself. _I can't think that every little thing that happens is a part of this mystery of what's happening in the Forbidden Forest._

_Especially not when Moon just scored again._

Both Seekers suddenly put on a huge burst of speed. Everyone went silent. This time, the Snitch could be seen high in the air above the pitch by every spectator.

It was hard to see in the dim light. Every eye strained to follow it, the Seekers' most of all.

I was momentarily distracted by another flash of lightning. The game had practically stopped. If I wrote a book for Chasers, I would tell them that who catches the Snitch is out of their hands – keep trying to get points even when the Seekers pick up the chase.

The Seekers were right there. Moon's Seeker's fingers almost touched it –

The lightning was blinding. When I opened my eyes, I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing.

"The lightning struck the Snitch!" the commentator screamed.

The two Seekers shot towards the ground

"Impossible! The Snitch is falling – it's broken or something – It can't fly right – Is that even possible?"

Everyone was shouting.

"That can't happen!"

"The balls can't be affected by natural lightning."

"Keep playing!"

Allan dropped the ball. I took off towards it. I was the only one who was paying attention to the falling Quaffle.

"It wasn't natural lightning," I heard Evan call to everyone near him. "The Snitch couldn't break because of natural lightning. Look at the Forbidden Forest. Could a normal storm set the Forest on fire?"

I looked towards the Forbidden Forest. My body felt even colder than it had before. The Forest was on fire. I hoped it could be stopped before too many trees died.

"The Starsnuffer, the Kindler of Wildfires…"

A Bludger whizzing past my ear woke me up from memories of Halloween night and the Forbidden Forest. The ball came back to get me properly. I turned away quickly and pushed my broom to its fastest. The Snitch was going to be caught soon. We might only have a minute to score again. Not that it would help if we didn't get the Snitch, but we were losing 70-60. I thought maybe I could at least even the goals.

"The Seekers are looking for the Snitch – it has to be somewhere on the ground there – it couldn't have gone that far –"

Two enemy Chasers, including Joseph, were chasing me. All the Beaters were fighting for the Bludgers. The game seemed to be out of control. Dawna was waiting by the goal posts. Allan tore himself away from the Snitch hunt just above the ground, which he had been trying to help with, to try to throw off my pursuers. Why did Joseph have to have a Nimbus 2020, too? He might be able to catch up with me, not being burdened down with a Quaffle. A Bludger was still following me. The other was circling the two Seekers.

The game had gone mad. One of Moon's younger Chasers collided with me, locked broom handles, and tried to wrestle the Quaffle out of my hands.

"Foul!" screamed Madam Hooch.

"That's Blatching from Moon's Chaser – flying with intent to collide – and Blurting as well – locking broom handles," explained the announcer

Who named these fouls?

"Just because the Snitch is broken doesn't mean you can break the rules!" Madam Hooch shouted.

I got to throw a penalty for Sun and made it in. That made me feel a little better. I still had a feeling that everything was falling apart, but at least we were tied now.

The Quaffle went back and forth between the teams. Two Beaters had gotten into an argument, something about the fouls.

"Laurence has the ball – she's going high, going to score – being crowded on all sides –"

I looked down at Dawna. She knew exactly what I was going to do. We had practiced it so many times that we could do it perfectly.

The Chasers tried to block me from getting into the scoring area. Well, _I_ wasn't going to score. I dropped the Quaffle to Dawna. She shot up to the goal posts –

"– Porter scores!"

I felt good. We were tied.

Allan had the Quaffle. I took a moment to see what the Seekers were doing and got to witness a historical moment in Hogwarts Quidditch history.

Both Seekers dropped towards the ground, aiming at a tiny, struggling gold thing. Their hands landed on it at the exact same moment.

Utter pandemonium erupted.

"He has two fingers under her hand. It goes to Sun!"

"It doesn't count! The Snitch couldn't get away."

"There's no rule in the game that says anything about dead Snitches."

"It's not quite dead yet."

"Stop quoting Monty Python and the Holy Grail!"

"Two fingers!"

"_What_ and the Holy Grail?"

"Muggle movie."

"It should go to both of them."

"It can't go to both of them!"

"Sun's winning anyway, just say they won."

"SILENCE."

The noise faded away. "We will work this out ourselves. Nothing will be gained with shouting and quoting muggle movies," Madam Hooch said.

"I didn't mean to quote no muggle movies," a grumpy voice was heard.

_That means you _did_ mean to quote muggle movies,_ I thought. One of the things that I had found comes with being a wizard is intolerance for bad grammar. "Actually, the quote was '_I'm_ not quite dead yet,'" I commented. _And it's pretty weird to notice that someone accidentally "quoted" a movie._

Madam Hooch glared at me. There was a long silence in the stands. Everyone was trying to hear a little bit of the argument on the ground in the pitch. Madam Hooch was joined by both Ginny Potter and Professor Elessar, all of whom were watching the game. They didn't even allow any player except the Seekers near. Not even the captains! Of course, we didn't even _have_ a captain.

I wondered why unnatural lightning would choose to strike a Quidditch ball, of all things. Maybe it was hoping to electrocute one of the Seekers. Maybe it was just extremely powerful lightning that happened to find a piece of metal in the air, like the key on Benjamin Franklin's legendary kite, and struck it.

Finally, the arguers seemed to come to an agreement.

"I don't want to hear any complaints about this," Madam Hooch began. "In fact, five house points will be taken for every complainer. Consider yourselves warned."

_I hope this isn't _that_ bad._

"We have decided to award 100 points to Sun for not quite catching the Snitch. The other 50 points the Snitch is worth will go to Moon for almost catching it."

"WHAT!"

"YES!"

The stands exploded in cheers and fury.

"Is that legal?" I asked Dawna.

"Who cares what they would do in a real game? We're just kids. We can have that rule about Snitches in Hogwarts if we feel like it. It's just a game, anyway." She put her arm around my shoulders. "Hey, we're a pretty good team, aren't we?"

I was too surprised at her niceness to answer.

* * *

We had a party that night. It was the second big party Sun had had. This time, I wasn't too shy to join, which was good because Dawna and I were guests of honor. No one else had been forced to perform with five minutes notice. Both our chasers were back on their feet for the party. Even Daymon was nicer than usual.

"You two should play for the Chudley Cannons, from what I hear," said Sarah to Dawna and me. Everyone was shocked to hear the name of the worst team in Great Brittan. "No, I didn't mean that in a mean way. I meant that you would bring them back to fame from infamy!"

Everyone cheered.

* * *

After the game, Dawna and I were partially forgiven for costing our house 100 points. We were considered cool again. First years don't often get to play Quidditch, let alone score goals!

The fire in the Forbidden Forest was on everyone's minds. It was put out easily, but such a thing had rarely happened before and had happened because of a storm. The teachers were informed by one of the few friendly centaurs that a unicorn was found dead. Quickbeam told us that it had clearly been killed by something, not burned to death. What would kill a unicorn?

Christmas vacation was coming soon. The grounds were covered with snow. Dawna had never seen snow before she came to Hogwarts. She had lived her entire life in Florida, where it never snows.

Professor Elessar had apparently decided that we deserved something interesting before the vacation, so when a boggart was found, he brought it in for us to try to conquer. We had never dealt with any magical beings outside of a cage (besides Dawna in Care of Magical Creatures), so we were all excited and nervous.

"The boggart will turn into your worst fear," explained Professor Elessar. "The trick is to think of some way to make your fear amusing. Boggarts hate laughter. There is also a very useful spell to use here: riddikulus. Practice that."

We all said the spell. Then we had a few minutes to think of a way to make our deepest fears amusing.

I decided that the things I feared most were people laughing at me, the Lone Power, and whatever was in the Forbidden Forest. Since I didn't know what was in the Forest, I didn't think the boggart could use that. I didn't know which of the other two I feared more. The only way to make people teasing me funny was to have something stupid happen to them, and I thought that might work for the Lone Power, too.

Professor Elessar asked for a volunteer to be first. No one offered. Maybe they were all hoping the boggart would be defeated by the time it was their turn. So Elessar said he would go in alphabetical order. That meant Evan Bryant was first.

Evan didn't look the least bit nervous. I wondered if he knew how to look scared. Elessar opened the chest that had the boggart in it. Luke Skywalker came out.

Everyone started laughing without Evan doing anything. Even the people who didn't know who Luke was were surprised that Evan was afraid of a human being.

The boggart Luke said something. Evan said, "Riddikulus" firmly and moved away.

The next person was Ryan Daymon. Luke turned into a wolf. I was sure it was a werewolf. Dawna and I laughed, thinking of Kit.

"Rid – riddikulus," he said. It turned into a little, red-haired girl.

Dawna and I were nearly in tears from laughter. Everyone else joined us.

A few people later, I stood in front of the boggart. It turned into a handsome man. I wondered if anyone thought there was something about the "unusual wizards" that made them afraid of young men. I also wondered if the boggart, like the real Lone Power, looked different to every person who saw it.

"Ri –" I began.

"So, you have come to die like your sister did," said the boggart in the Speech. "Would you like to see her one more time?" It was the exact voice of the creator of evil. Its exact words.

"Riddikulus," I whispered. Nothing happened. I fled to the back of the line.

Evan left his place in the line and came over to me. "That was the Lone One, wasn't it?" he asked. I nodded.

Jennifer said the spell firmly. The boggart didn't even waver at the laughter. My fear had strengthened it. I swallowed and dried my tears. Evan smiled kindly at me.

It was soon Dawna's turn. The boggart turned into a huge, ugly, yellow-and-black spider nearly the size of a person. She used the same defense Ron had in the books; its legs disappeared after she said the spell. The next girl stood in front of it before it could roll too far. It turned into a centaur with a bow and quiver full of arrows.

The boggart was still alive, but weaker, by the time all the students had fought it. Professor Elessar stood in front of it then. It turned into a towering black horse and rider.

"Nazgûl," someone said.

A cold feeling swept over me. I was going to faint like I had on the journey over the lake…

The boggart was gone. Elessar had defeated it.

We returned to our desks to write an essay on what we would do if we met a boggart alone. I was still shaking.

* * *

Dawna avoided us through lunch. Whether she was ashamed of her own fear or was allowing us to be ashamed of ours, I didn't know. Evan didn't talk much, either. Later, walking through the hallway, I finally brought up the subject of the boggart.

"You're afraid of spiders?" I exclaimed. "You're a shapeshifter. You could turn into a spider."

"Yuck. No." Dawna shuddered.

"You really have to get over it. Spide –" I stopped in surprise. She had turned into a small, brightly decorated Christmas tree.

"Are you talking to a tree, or am I crazy?" It was Daymon.

"No comment," said Evan. I coughed to cover my laughter.

"That's an awfully small tree," said one of Daymon's girlfriends.

"Small trees are cool," I protested.

"Bye, weirdoes," he said.

Dawna turned into a human after he was out of sight.

"No comment," she imitated, laughing. "You're lucky he didn't curse you for suggesting he's crazy." Then she turned serious. "So you scold me for being afraid of spiders?"

"Not scold –"

"So why is Evan scared of Luke Skywalker, and why aren't you annoying him about that?"

Evan sighed. "I'm afraid of Luke Skywalker turning me away. Telling me I'll never be a Jedi, or it's hopeless, or he just doesn't want me for whatever reason."

"That makes more sense," I said. "But you didn't do anything to the boggart…You could have dressed him like Neville's grandmother or something."

Dawna giggled.

Evan sighed again. "I – I thought it would be… well… disrespectful."

I swallowed my laugh and had a brief coughing fit. Evan saw through it and told me it was an honorable effort.

When I was better, I said, "It's a boggart, Evan. Not really Luke. Please."

"Sorry."

We wandered outside and sat down. Then both my friends turned on me.

"What did your boggart say?" asked Evan. "Or was it just the sight of It?"

I swallowed. They really deserved to know. The memory was painful, but after the boggart, it could hardly get worse. So, I told them the whole truth.

"When I was eight years old, my only sister, I didn't have a brother until two years ago, died in some accident. No one told me how at the time. She was twelve then."

"Is that why you were home schooled?" Dawna realized.

"Genius," I replied. "Yes. They were afraid that something would happen. I was afraid to upset them. I still had some friends, unfortunately; I had to lie to them about what school I was going to when I came here. "But," I shrugged, "I guess you can only go so long as a good little girl."

"What does this have to do with a boggart?" Evan asked.

"Patience, my young Jedi." I realized too late that this might not be very nice to someone afraid of his acceptance as a Jedi. "I'm getting there. One day I saw this book at my friend's house, and I took it home. I had to. It was a wizard's manual, and it's very bossy. It didn't let me leave it. I took the oath, but what would my Mum and Dad say if I kept disappearing and one day, it always happens one day, I never came home? Well, that was my ordeal. Rebelling. Making my parents accept that I am my own person and they can't cling to me forever. Okay, it's a lot more complicated, because the Lone Power almost always appears in Ordeals, but that's the important part.

"And I learned the truth, too. My parents were furious when they found out I had taken the oath. Why? How did they know what a wizard is? Because that's how my sister died. On some mission almost a year after her ordeal. She became a wizard at eleven, like me. She was very powerful; maybe the Hogwarts people thought I would be as good as she was and decided they wanted me… But my parents never told me…"

I saw that they understood.

"The Lone Power told you what happened to her and used it against you. That is your boggart," Evan said quietly.

* * *

**I have run into a bit of an issue with the fact that Snitches remember the first person who touches them. I'll just say that the Seekers touched it at the exact same time.**

**I am braced for people wondering what on Earth (or any other planet) I'm doing with this story, so just review.**


	9. Chapter 9: The Manual

**Chapter 9** **The Manual**

* * *

**This chapter and the next are actually the reason why the story is named The Wizard's Manual – other than the fact that only people who read Young Wizards could know why I would be talking about a manual for wizardry, and everyone would be curious.**

* * *

Dawna was staying at Hogwarts over Christmas. No one wanted to give her transportation all the way back to America. She said she _would_ attempt a transatlantic crossing on a broomstick, but it might take too long. Jennifer was staying as well to keep her company. We were both sure that Dawna would actually appreciate company, despite her behavior. Tom and Steven weren't leaving either, so I wasn't too nervous about anything happening in the Forbidden Forest when Evan, Leianna, and I were gone. They would take care of it.

I really had no choice about going home. My parents weren't entirely over their protective-ness yet. They wanted to see that I was safe and unhexed. (Of course, I hadn't entirely escaped bad spells over the term, but they didn't have to know that. It isn't important.)

My baby brother, Kyle, greeted me with, "Who's 'at?" and, once my Dad told him, "Fae? Th' wizaw'?"

"Yes, I'm a wizard," I said. "He's talking more now. I've missed a lot."

That was the other reason I had to come home. I didn't want my brother to have forgotten me by summer. I also wanted to make sure he knew what wizardry was. I could see Mum and Dad never telling him. They had given Kyle "Truth" as a middle name. I hoped they were finally learning the value of that name.

"Mummy say I not wizaw', and she i' happy."

"You're not a wizard yet, but you might be. We'll just see." I didn't want him thinking that just because I was a wizard meant he would be or is already one, but I didn't want to rule out the possibility, either.

"Why Mummy no happy 'bout it?"

"Because people get hurt as wizards," I said. I picked him up then and carried him to our car. It was a long drive home. I told my parents most of what had happened in Hogwarts, leaving out Halloween. We hadn't told anyone about Quickbeam, and I hoped no one would tell them about the Lethifolds.

Kyle had questions all the way home and longer. I answered him as well as I could, but I think he knew I didn't tell everything. What can you tell a two-year-old about death? Or fear? Or fighting?

The last member of our family greeted me that evening. It was the cat that lived with us. She had a litter of kittens, to my surprise. She wouldn't let me close.

"Only a wizard's cat would have kittens in the winter," I commented to her.

She spat at me. "Humans are silly," she said in disgust.

"Do you like the kittens?" Mum asked. "You can have one when they are old enough."

"I don't think that a kitten would do well with a wizard at Hogwarts," I said. "Some cats become wizards themselves."

"Cats?" she asked in surprise.

"Maybe we shouldn't talk about that around them," I said, pointing to the cats. "The mother can understand some English, and she gets insulted easily."

"How much else don't you tell me?" My mother crossed her arms.

I decided that wasn't a good question to answer and changed the subject.

* * *

Dawna sent me a baby fern for Christmas.

She also sent me the newest copy of _Hogwarts: a History_. But it was the fern that made me laugh. Although it was cut, I had a feeling it wouldn't die even if I didn't put it in water. It was that sort of fern.

Evan gave me a copy of _A Wizard Abroad_. It is the fourth book in the series, _Young Wizards,_ historical fiction about manual-trained wizards, not that anyone but a wizard would consider it historical fiction. He knew I had read the first three already. His rabbit sent me a magical photograph (the moving kind) of itself. I felt very guilty that I had forgotten to send it anything.

Christmas was a relief from the craziness of Hogwarts. I was very glad that some of the world was still sane. I didn't even have any dreams I remembered during the whole vacation. It was almost _too_ normal. But still, I was glad to get back to Hogwarts. Who doesn't like a wizarding job? The Forbidden Forest was certainly promising one, and I was looking forward to it. I hadn't had an assignment since July. I only wondered what it would be like to work with other people for a change.

* * *

"What happened while I was gone?" were my first words to Dawna and Evan.

"Not much," Evan replied.

"Ryan Daymon," Dawna groaned.

"He stayed?"

"Aye."

"Stop that!"

"Dawna, really," said Evan. "That's getting really old."

"Now I know why Mum doesn't want me to have a noticeable accent," I muttered. "What did Daymon do?"

"The usual. Being his annoying, hating self. What does he have against us?" Evan complained. "We haven't done anything to him. At least, not yet. If he keeps this up, we will."

"We haven't?" I asked. "What about Dawna turning into a half-cat?"

"What? Oh, you mean before Halloween?" He looked upset. He muttered, "She couldn't help that."

I gave him a stern look, trying to convince him to tell me what he meant.

"Harry Potter came for Christmas. Nothing happened," Dawna told me. "Daymon didn't even tease me about my name. No lethifolds."

"That's a relief," I said. "I would want to be there if there were. To help."

* * *

_I can't believe that awful woman took Dumbledore's place as Headmaster. _ I was halfway through Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts.

"Do you get a feeling Evan's hiding something?" Dawna asked. Evan was in the boy's dormitory.

"Actually, I get a feeling _you're_ hiding something. Many somethings, probably," I replied.

For a moment, I thought she was going to stop speaking to me again. But then she pulled herself together. "Haven't you been getting strange dreams here?"

"You mean like fighting Voldemort with a lightsaber?"

She was quiet for a moment. Then, she said, "You're lucky I can't think up a sarcastic comment for that one. But, yes, I would say that counted as a weird dream."

"Your point is?"

"Well, did you ever get these dreams before?"

"Um, not of Voldemort, but lightsaber dreams, and Jedi dreams, and Harry Potter dreams. And, uh, fighting some nameless force of evil which killed everyone but me, well not actually killed, but somehow kept from fighting, while I faced him with a lightsaber and a wand, and that was two years ago –"

Dawna threw a quill at me. I pretended to protect myself with the fern she had given me. "You're hopeless," she declared.

"I'll tell you what's strange," I said. "That every time I try to read about Harry Potter in my manual, someone_ interrupts me_."

"Fine, Fae. But there's something really weird about this place."

"Aye, the mysterious Forbidden Forest, Quickbeam who can't remember anything, a professor with a long family history tracing back to Aragorn, not to mention us…"

"You forgot the werewolf girl that says 'poke,'" she reminded me. "Our children are never going to believe us when we tell these stories."

"I pity any children of yours."

"Fae!" She chased me upstairs.

I was reading about the fight in the Ministry of Magic when one of Daymon's friends came up the stairs (it was a boy; they had lifted the spell that keeps boys out of the girls' dormitory after the near disaster at Halloween) and asked me for help in Herbology, which I am good at. Even though I didn't like him very much, I helped him. I never can seem to refuse people who need help.

That night, I dreamed of a conspiracy to keep me from reading my manual. Dawna was right about strange dreams.

* * *

I was reading my manual in peace for a change. I was sitting outside in a quiet corner where no one would find or accidentally disturb me, I hoped. I was reading about the end of Harry's sixth year. I knew my manual didn't have as many details as J. K. Rowling's books would, but at least I didn't have to wait years and years. I wanted to know _now_. It seemed very important.

"Fae! We've been looking for you," called Steven.

"Go away," I replied. "I'm never alone. Can't I be alone for once?"

"The trees are upset," Leianna whispered.

I put the book down. "About what?"

"We don't know," Steven said. I could tell he was worried. "They just feel… frightened."

"Have you talked to them?"

"No. We just know." Leianna's voice was higher than usual. She was nervous.

Evan appeared. "Something's wrong in the Forest."

"We know," Steven said.

"Something's wrong right here." I told them about my latest dream. "I keep having weird dreams, and Dawna has noticed the same thing."

"Me, too," said Leianna. Steven agreed.

"I always have strange dreams," Evan muttered.

"Maybe there's something we're not supposed to know about Harry Potter and Voldemort."

Leianna shivered at the name. I felt cold, too. Evan looked sick. We were silent for a moment.

"Let's not say that. Maybe he's coming back or something." Steven warned.

"He can't." I explained about horcruxes. "If he's gone now, then he's dead. Harry had to have destroyed all of him to defeat him. There can't be anything left of him anymore."

"Maybe Harry never finished," Evan suggested.

"Impossible," said Leianna.

"I want to know!" I almost shouted. I said, softer, "I want to know the rest of the story."

"Okay, okay. You can read, if you think it'll help," said Steven. "But I think it's just that something very evil is around, and speaking of evil makes it stronger, or something like that. Not that Voldemort himself is around."

Steven left to talk to Tom and Dawna. Leianna started to read her own manual about something. Evan stared into space with his chin in his hands.

I moved on to the story of the seventh year after a few tears for the end of the sixth. I read for a long time.

A loud _caw_ing sound interrupted me. I looked up to see a large crow perched on a gargoyle above my head. It dove towards me the moment it saw me looking. I jerked backwards out of instinct, but it wasn't aiming at me. Its talons caught my book and tried to pull it away. I held on tightly. I heard a tearing sound, and the next few pages in the manual were gone.

I looked at my two friends. "I told you there was a conspiracy to keep me from reading this."

Evan stood up. "We're going to find those pages."

"What?" Leianna asked. "You're crazy. How do you expect to find something a crow stole before it's torn up?"

"Because it won't be torn up," he said seriously. "Crows don't eat paper."

"What did it take it for, then?" Dawna was suddenly standing next to me with Steven and Tom.

"Because… because… I don't know. But I've been studying wizardry and everything else, and I think something's going on and we're supposed to be the ones to deal with it."

"Could you possibly be more vague?" Dawna asked sarcastically.

"It's not my fault!" Evan complained. "If I knew more, I'd tell you more."

I had found a tracing spell in my manual (Which is ironic, because it was for finding a lost manual, and if I had really lost it, how would I find the spell?) and started working it.

_The swamp_ was my only answer. "It says that the lost pages are in the swamp."

_Where is the swamp? _I asked it.

_Florida._

I told the others what the manual had said.

"I knew the crow was strange," said Leianna. "It must belong to a wizard, or be one, to get all the way to Florida so quickly!"

"Why?" Dawna asked. "It doesn't make any sense. What's so important about these pages?"

"It's the last pages of the story of Harry Potter's school years," I said. "And more. About five sheets."

"Where are we going, exactly?" Steven asked. "The swamp in Florida? There are lots of swamps in Florida. We need an exact location."

"The Everglades, of course," said Dawna. "It does say _the_ swamp, not _a_ swamp."

"The what?" I looked at the others. No one showed any recognition.

"The Everglades. It's a national park. The biggest marshland park in America. You've never heard of it?" She actually seemed surprised.

"Of course not. We're from the other side of the Atlantic, if you've forgotten," Tom said, giving Dawna a taste of her own rudeness.

"The Everglades is huge, though. Can you find out if any part of it has had wizard activity recently?" Dawna continued. She was being reasonable for a change.

I looked it up in my manual. "Aye. Here's a place. Let's go about… here." I showed Steven.

"We can't take Evan and Dawna. We don't know their Names," Leianna reminded me.

I was relieved that Evan and Dawna realized they were out of their depth and didn't even say that of _course_ we knew their names. It saved us the trouble of explaining that Names had to describe every part of a being or else they might not arrive as the same person they were when they had left.

"I think we can get the manuals to tell us that. We need Dawna. She knows Florida. And Jedi and shapeshifters can be helpful sometimes," Steven said.

"Leianna and I will do the spell if you write it," Tom said. "We know how to work together pretty well by now."

We agreed. Steven had gotten his manual to find Dawna and Evan's Names for us. The written part of the spell was almost finished.

"Uh-oh." I suddenly thought of something. "We can't Apparate on Hogwarts grounds."

"This isn't the same kind of magic as is going on around here," Steven assured me. "We're a different sort of wizard, so we should be able to do this."

"You had better be right," I said. (He wasn't – there will probably always be a circle of blackened stone where we did our spell – but we didn't find that out until months later.) We finished the written spell. A group of fifth-year students passed by, talking about their upcoming OWLs. We were silent until they passed. Then we all stepped into the large circle where the spell was written. "It can be a little hard the first time," I warned Evan and Dawna. "It shouldn't be too bad since we aren't leaving Earth, but it's all right if you're afraid."

Dawna said something rude.

Tom started the spoken spell. Leianna joined in. I could hardly believe this would all happen without _me_ saying the words. But now I felt the familiar feeling of everything around us leaning in to listen and realized that for the first time, I was being carried along with someone else's magic. I was putting all my trust into someone else.

_I must be growing up._

Then the spell began to work. We were yanked along by some irresistible force. It didn't last long – after all, it was only a few thousand miles.

Dawna was clinging on to my arm with a death grip by the time we landed. Tom started to make some snide remark about her scoffing at the thought of being afraid of the spell and ending up clinging on to me like a five-year-old.

"Shut up," I interrupted him. "And Dawna, if I end up with bruises all over my arm, it's your fault."

She smiled a little as she looked around, hardly noticing that we were ankle-deep in water. "I've always wanted to see the Everglades."

* * *

**Review or I will set Fae's cat on you.**


	10. Chapter 10: The Pages

**Chapter 10**

**The Pages**

* * *

**Much as I would like to, I cannot possibly deny that this is the weirdest chapter I have ever written in any story. **_**A Prairie Home Companion**_** show I heard years ago contributed to it – somewhere in the depths of radio history, you can find the omniscient narrator idea in a Guy Noir episode. Go Fanách is something my friends (the ones that I created this story for) and I found once when we were bored and started looking for translators online. And The Vending Machine was one of my friend's many random ideas.**

**More seriously, I'm going to claim that the Fiendfyre that Crabbe set in the Room of Requirement did not destroy the room's powers, because that room is necessary to the story. J. K. Rowling didn't say for sure that it would be unusable.**

* * *

"I don't see a crow around," Evan said.

"We actually landed two meters from the edge of the space which has had the latest wizardry action," I explained. "It should be around there."

We made our way over to a little "island" of relatively dry land nearby. I suddenly had a picture of what we must look like to an onlooker. Six children in English school uniforms wading through a swamp.

"I wish I was wearing cooler clothes," Leianna said, pulling off her scarf. "Is it even winter here? It feels like summer."

"Welcome to Florida," Dawna replied. "Sometimes it gets down to below freezing in the mornings in winter, but it's usually not much cooler than fifty degrees. Fahrenheit, of course."

"No wonder you've never seen snow," I said in amazement. "How can you stand it?"

"Wait until you've felt it in summer," she replied.

We stood on the island. "This is the only place that's had any display of power in the whole swamp recently enough for it to be what we're looking for," I said, "but I don't feel –"

And suddenly, I did feel it. There was power here. It centered around –

I turned around. A giant alligator, more than three meters long, crawled up behind us.

"Dai stihò." Ironically, it was Evan, not a wizard, who remembered to be polite.

"Young wizards," it said. In English.

It is shameful for a wizard, the best users of language in the galaxy, to be speechless. But all four of us were.

It yawned. We got a full view of its dangerous teeth. "He's over there," it said, pointing with its snout to a nearby "island."

"Um…" I said.

"Who is?" asked Steven.

"The one you are looking for."

"Who are _you_?" I asked.

It just made a sound that made me think it was laughing at us. Then it slid into the water.

* * *

_**I am the Omniscient Narrator, one of the Lesser Powers that Be. Some of the Lesser Powers get to take care of a planet, place, or a race of people. Some get to give messages to beings through dreams. I get to narrate stories. Lucky Me.**_

_**And many authors do not even bother to use me! They refuse to even ****consult**** me. This is not fair.**_

_**Here is how this story should go:**_

_"**Dawna took a soggy paper bag from the ground. 'What is this doing here?'"**_

_**(I put it there. Why? Because I can. Muahaha! Back to the story.)**_

_"'**Maybe some tourists dropped it there,' Fae suggested.**_

_"'**Hmm, maybe I can fix everything right now,' Dawna said thoughtfully. **_

_"'**Dawna, that bag's disgusting. You don't know where it's been,' Steven said.**_

_"'**Wait and watch. I have an idea,' she scolded. ****Why do the wizards have to have all the fun and all the chances to save the world? I can fix this easily,**** she thought. She turned it into six pages. It was covered with writing in the Speech. She handed it to Fae.**_

_"**Fae stared at it for a moment. She began to read. It had the rest of Harry's –"**_

_**Uh-oh. I see Fae. She will not be happy that I am using the computer. She thinks that she knows more than I do. She is angry!**_

_**Do you not like My story? Is this not easier than the way you did it? You had to go – Leave Me alone! You are but a mortal human, and I – What do you mean, you do not believe I am one of the Powers that Be? Of course I – Stop it – Heelp! – Let go of my tail – Aargh –**_

* * *

**Okay. That was strange. My cat decided she is one of the Powers that Be and a better author than I am.**

**Uh-oh.**

**That's a scary thought.**

**What if she IS one of the Powers that Be?**

* * *

**I can't possibly get rid of **_**that**_** interlude, even though no one will believe that it really happened! Oh, well, back to the story.**

**STAY OFF MY COMPUTER, MS. OMNISCIENT NARRATOR!**

* * *

Dawna turned into a small alligator and set off. Steven said a spell that would allow us to walk on the water, and we followed her. Evan raised his eyebrows when he saw us start to walk on the muddy water, but soon followed us.

Halfway across, we saw a man sitting on a tree stump. He hadn't been there a moment ago. A raven sat on his shoulder. Something about him was decidedly unearthly. Maybe because his skin had a violet shade to it. He smiled slowly and showed stunningly white, pointed teeth.

"Evan, what is that?" I asked quietly.

"An alien."

"You think?" Leianna asked sarcastically.

"A very powerful alien." He looked pale.

"Oh, yes, you know, little boy. You want to be a Jedi, don't you? But you're not. And you never will be." He held up a handful of old, crumpled pages and said to us "You came looking for the pages. Here they are. Come get them, for all the good it'll do you. We've already gotten what we want. Though maybe I should read them first… Wouldn't it be interesting to know what's so important that you came all this way for it when you should be at home, protecting the trees? And Harry Potter…"

He laughed a cold laugh that reminded me of the description of Voldemort's laugh, a laugh like the Lone Power's when It knows It is doing something that really hurts you. And then he disappeared. The six pages fluttered to the ground.

We stood, stunned.

"Let's go," said Evan in a hoarse voice. "We need to get back. Now. Before someone realizes we are missing." He changed his voice so that it sounded normal and businesslike.

I grabbed the pages. Tom began to write the spell. "We'll land on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Then we can see what's on those pages and find out what's wrong with the trees."

"I'll do the speaking spell this time," offered Steven. "Fae, do you want to help? You don't have to, though. We've never worked together before."

"I'll help. Can't have everyone else doing everything for me," I said.

I had another new experience that day: doing a spell with another wizard. It wasn't nearly as hard as I would have thought. We were soon on the edge of the Forest. Tom and Leianna went to talk to the trees. The rest of us sat down and started reading the pages.

One sheet was about Harry Potter. We read the end at last. The next one was titled "Go Fánach."

"What's that mean?" Evan asked.

"I think it's Gaelic. 'Random' or something like that." I speak a bit of Gaelic. It's cool.

I started to read. I blinked and looked again. I gave it to Steven. "Please tell me I'm reading this wrong."

He looked at it and groaned. "We went all that way for _this_?"

"What is it?" Dawna asked.

I began, "How to greet the Lone Power in the twenty most common Earth languages, ordered by the number of people who speak it, spelling and pronunciation included, pictures of Ents, and –" I couldn't go on. I started beating my head against my manual.

"Stop abusing the poor book," Steven scolded. "It can't be _that_ bad." He took the last page and read, "How to say, 'what is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow' in the fifty most common languages of the galaxy and how to respond, very useful in quests for… the Holy… Grail…?" He started to hit his head with his own manual. Dawna turned a handful of dirt into a book and did the same. Evan tried not to laugh. I heard a crack and looked up.

Steven stared at his wizard's manual and opened it. It fell open to show his favorite quill, which had been stuck there, broken in half.

"Steven…" I moaned.

The other two came back, looking worried.

"You'll never believe –" I said at the same time as Steven and Tom.

"You go first," said Leianna. "What do they say?"

"You don't want to know," said Dawna.

Steven told them.

"You're joking. It's not funny," said Leianna. "If you knew what the trees –"

I handed her the pages. She looked at them for a moment and then shut her eyes. "I always thought manuals had useful information in them," she whispered. "How disappointing."

"They do," said Evan so quietly I wasn't sure he had spoken.

"What?" I asked.

He held up the last page. "You missed one." He actually looked frightened.

I took it. It was an extensive family tree written in the Roman alphabet. Of Evan's family.

"Look here." He pointed to a name near the top.

I almost dropped the paper. "It – then – then you're – it can't be true –"

"It must be."

"What's going on?" Everyone was staring at us.

I flipped the page over. It was Dawna's family tree. I scanned it. _It had the same name._ "Oh, my god," I whispered. "You're related."

"Who?" asked Evan.

"You and Dawna. It's hardly surprising, for her. Actually, it explains a lot."

"What?" shouted Dawna, turning her eyes red and fiery to show her frustration.

"Dawna, you and Evan are both distantly – Evan more distantly than you – related to the Lone Defender."

"Let me see that." She grabbed the paper. "Where?"

I showed her. She kept staring at it. "That name means the Lone Defender? You're sure?"

"That is one of Its names."

"Fae. Look in your manual and see what comes after the missing pages," Evan said.

I opened the book to the wounded part. While I was there, I fixed the pages back in. My manual relaxed; it had been in pain. Then I looked at the next page. My family tree, Tom's, Leianna's and Steven's. Then there was Professor Elessar's and Aragorn's. I pointed that out to the others. It made them laugh, if nervously. We had all heard his family history more than once. We hoped he never saw this one. It went all the way to the first king. Surprisingly, there was also Dumbledore's family tree. Even more surprisingly, I recognized no famous names. Finally, there was Luke Skywalker's.

I looked at everyone's except mine. I was afraid of what it might say. But I finally, I looked.

My fears were real. I was also related to the Lone Defender, though more distantly than Evan. That explained why my sister and I both became wizards at eleven years old.

The others backed away from us. We were part god. The Lone Defender is not the nicest of the Bright Powers, though it's the best one to have on your side. It is a warrior. It is very powerful. It is not kind. Dawna's grumpiness probably was from It. It is often short-tempered.

But most importantly for them, it was the twin of the Lone Power. The very being that had made us all so miserable. The thing that had killed my sister and then taken me back to that time on my Ordeal to force me to watch. The thing that had created pain and fear and death. And we were related to It.

"What happened in the Forest?" I asked.

Tom and Leianna looked at each other. Leianna spoke. "The trees say they know the ancient thing from the War of the Ring that has returned. The Ringwraiths. Nazgûl."

"It's not true," I whispered. "That's impossible."

Evan suddenly said, loudly, "Harry Potter was visiting Ginny today."

I gave him an odd look. I didn't know how he knew that, and something about his voice was very strange.

"How do you know?" Steven asked.

"He isn't here anymore. The Lethifolds attacked when he was here last, but this time It got what It wanted. He was walking near here with Ginny when we were after those stupid pages and the Ringwraiths took them!"

I didn't know what to say or feel. It couldn't be true. But if it _was_ true, it was terrifying.

"You can't know that just by the Force, can you?" Leianna asked us all.

"Evan," I said with all the calm I could summon. "Is there something we should know?"

He looked ashamed. "Yes."

"What is it?" I pressed.

"I sometimes have visions. Of the future or sometimes the past. The future ones can be changed, but the past ones are always true. And, I think you should know, since we have met, it seems to have rubbed off on you and Dawna. Especially Dawna. Maybe because we're all related."

"Does this have to do with Dawna changing into a cat during Halloween?" asked Leianna. "Right after she said all that strange stuff about Harry Potter that ended up coming true?"

"So that's the vision Fae had of the forest," Tom realized. "And that's why Dawna said the weird things about the full moon on the first night." We had told them all about that trip over the lake.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Dawna screamed. "I spent so much time wondering about my dreams and the things that came into my head. Worrying! You could have made life so much easier."

"But you would have known they could come true," Evan explained. "That's worse, believe me."

"That's all the weird dreams, then," I said. "You should have told us. I hope I don't have to fight Voldemort for real!"

"I only realized you were being affected on Halloween," he said.

"But you should have told us about you. We cared, you know! We would have wanted to know," I said. I was furious. I kept it better hidden than Dawna, though. She was still yelling, and her words weren't nice.

"We need to go now," Evan said firmly. "We need to save the Potters. They won't be able to save themselves; I'm sure their power was taken care of."

"Go where?" I asked.

"To the Jedi, first," he said thoughtfully.

"Evan, this is not the time for you to be thinking about meeting the Jedi," Leianna scolded.

"Don't you know? That man we met with the pages is a Sith."

"Oh," I said. I realized I should have known that. "Oh. Let's go talk to the Jedi."

"Someone should stay behind to protect the castle," the red-haired werewolf girl said. We were too worried, and too used to surprises by then, to wonder what she was doing there. "You know what happened last time you were all away, and the Lone Power is directly involved in this. You are the only ones who know how to deal with It. Oh, I almost forgot. Poke."

"I'm going and Evan's going," I insisted.

"You can't go without me," Dawna declared. "No, I won't kill Evan, even though I am still mad at him."

"How about us three – four, including her –" he pointed to the werewolf "–stay?" suggested Tom. "You three know each other pretty well. Steven could go along, if you want. He knows you – Fae, at least, – better than we do."

"No, Steven can stay. With four of you, two can chase the Nazgûl and the other two protect the castle. Let's go," I told Evan and Dawna.

"Where are you going?" Evan asked. I was walking towards the castle.

"To the Room of Requirement. I read about it in Harry's fifth year. It gives you whatever you want, and we need a worldgate. There aren't any nearby. I can't do a galaxy jump all by myself with two passengers. It's not like I have Ordeal level power. A wizard's power gets lower with time after the end of an ordeal. I hope I remember how to get to the room." My mind was spinning with all the things I had found out over the past hour.

"Good luck!" called Steven.

"Good moons!" shouted the werewolf.

"May the Force be with you!" Evan and I replied together.

"We'll need it," muttered Dawna.

* * *

I found the room easily. I walked back and forth in front of the room thinking, _We need a worldgate to Coruscant._ (I had checked to see where Luke was.) I was breathing hard. We had run all the way up to the seventh floor. On the third pass, a door appeared.

"Here we go," I said. "I don't know whether it'll take us there the moment we step through the door, so brace yourself."

I opened the door. Inside was a vending machine with chips and cookies in it.

"A vending machine," said Dawna. "Hey, this is The Vending Machine from my school. I drew that." She pointed to a badly drawn cat on the side. "It's, like, the only vending machine in the whole school. No one knows why it's there. And it's got a lot of food in it today. It's hardly ever fully stocked. I can get something for once." She reached into her pocket and pulled out an American dollar bill. She tried three times. It took the bill on the third. She pushed two buttons and a bag of chips fell to the bottom. She reached down to get it and squeezed it until the air-filled bag burst. "Doritos, anyone?"

Evan's mouth was open as if he couldn't believe what she was doing.

"Dawna," I groaned. "Dawna, this is important."

"Come on, Fae. Let's get this done," Evan said, finally finding his voice.

I looked at it through 'wizard vision.' Under each item were the coordinates of a place in the Speech only visible to a wizard. I checked everything to see that it would work properly. The other two watched, fascinated. Yes, this vending machine would work for a worldgate, odd as it was. All we needed to do was choose the coordinates, open the front, and walk into it like the entry to platform nine and three-quarters. I talked the door open.

"Well," I said, "Let's meet the Jedi."

* * *

**Is anyone still reading? Will anyone keep reading after this?  
**


	11. Chapter 11: Jedi

**Chapter 11**

**Jedi**

* * *

**We're off the planet at last! I made up most of what Coruscant looks like (and definitely the thing about its gods), but most of the wizardry is at least partially canon.**

* * *

I went first. I landed in something squishy. I instantly knew that this was not something I had wanted to land on. I held up my rowan wand, which gave out dim moonlight. I was in a trash heap.

"Please say we're not in the Death Star trash compactor." Evan had appeared.

"Time travel is impossible," Dawna told him. "More than a day." She had come through.

"Besides, it's too big," I added. "The walls aren't close enough."

"Did you think the movies are realistic? I'm sorry to disillusion you." Evan said sarcastically. He attempted a spell to clean himself but actually only threw sparks from his wand. He shrugged. I decided to wait for cleaning until we actually got out of the place. Dawna seemed to be thinking the same thing. "I was joking about the Death Star," he added. "But I suggest we get out of here. It _could_ be a trash compactor."

"Um, which way is out?" Dawna asked.

"I suggest we try that way," I said, pointing to a door. "The words there say 'exit.'"

"Why would someone put 'exit' on a door of a trash heap?" Dawna wondered as I opened the door.

"Maybe we aren't the only ones to use the vending machine as a worldgate," I suggested. Outside the door was a flight of metal steps. No one used stone or wood anymore in Coruscant. We began to walk the steps. I leaned my hand against the wall, wishing there was a banister. The steps were narrow, and I was afraid of slipping.

We stopped in amazement. We had come out in a huge building. There were about a dozen people in it, many of them clearly aliens. It was a round room with eight doors and windows equally spaced around the walls. We had come from the smallest door, across from the largest. The ceiling was a dome high overhead. The walls were colored with holographic tiles of all colors that made some kind of a picture. The floor had a design of words around a shape I recognized from my manual in the part telling of the great Republic. It was an eight-pointed star, the symbol used in the Republic to represent one of the Republic's "Gods," actually one of the Powers that Be. Namely, the Lone Defender.

"We're in one of the Lone Defender's temples," I whispered.

"How appropriate," Evan murmured.

"Is this where Luke is?" Dawna asked.

"Of course not. The Jedi don't often associate with the Powers that Be or Gods. They prefer to work alone," Evan told her.

"I believe the largest door leads outside. We should go quickly. Harry and Ginny need us."

"Harry and Ginny need us," said Dawna softly. "How many people get to say that?"

"Well, we need to do something or it may be that no one will be able to say it again," I said. "And I don't mean to be melodramatic, just to tell the truth."

"Do we have a plan to find Master Skywalker?" Evan asked.

"Just call him Luke. He's not listening, I hope," I sighed. He might be, for all I knew; anything was possible now. "I don't think he would like you worshipping him, anyway."

"I don't worship him," Evan grumbled. "I just… Okay, I worship him a _little_."

"Yes, I do have a plan," I said. "We need to get out of the temple first, and all places that have magic of any kind affecting them. The magic leaves overlay for two days after it has been done, which can change a new spell's meaning. I can trace the center of the Force on the planet, and it should lead me to the Jedi Temple, or whatever they call the place they live now."

"All right, let's go," said Evan. He was shaking, whether in fear or excitement, I didn't know. He had never been away from Earth before and likely never seen an alien. To meet Luke could be either his dreams or his nightmares come true.

We stepped outside of the temple to see another astounding scene below us. There was nothing left of anything natural in all of Coruscant. All was metal and light and sentient beings. And magic. Magic _everywhere_.

"I have to do the spell here, and risk it. I've done plenty of wizardry in Hogwarts, and magical overlay was everywhere there," I said thoughtfully. "All right, I'll do it here. Provided I won't be disturbed." There were a thousand people and a hundred airships in one glance in this city. I looked down for a moment. It looked as if we were at least a mile above the ground. I felt dizzy.

"I hate heights," I said softly.

"Ah, so the wizard finally shows her own irrational fears," said Evan.

I scowled and started the spell. The moment I spoke the last syllable, the planet exploded with even more light than it already had. It was the most complicated power-tracing spell I knew. It showed overlay of every kind of magic. Gold dots stood for places where wizardry had been spoken in the last 56 hours (two Coruscant days) scattered across my vision. It showed red dots where magic using words that was not wizardry – Hogwarts magic or sorcery, for example – had been used in the last two Coruscant days. The Force was shown behind all this as green threads that lead to every living being on the planet.

_I thought there were rules limiting magic use on Coruscant. If this is what is left over with everyone following the rules, how many magicians live on this planet?_

"Wow," said Dawna. "That's overwhelming."

"You can see it?" I asked, surprised.

"Shouldn't we be able to? We aren't muggles," said Evan.

"If you were muggles, I would really wonder. But even if many wizards were together, only the person who writes this sort of spell should be able to see it. But since you can, do you see any pattern in the Force?"

"Yes. I think it's bending that way," Evan said, pointing to a tall, white building in the distance. "You think that's…"

"It should be. The Jedi Temple is on the border between the district of Coruscant that has most of the magical population and the section that has most of the political population," I said and let go of the spell. "And if we aren't in the district of magic, I really don't want to know how bad the overlay is _there_."

"How are we supposed to get there? We haven't planned this out well, have we?" Evan said.

I looked at my watch. Right before we left, I had set it at 12:00. It was about 12:20 now. We hadn't even been gone for half an hour. But we didn't know how much time we had. We didn't know what was happening.

"Where in the world are we?" asked a voice I recognized.

"What are you doing here, Daymon?" asked Dawna in a dangerously calm voice.

"What are you doing here, Porter? And where is here?" he asked.

"How did you _get_ here?" I asked furiously.

"I saw you running upstairs and decided to follow you. I followed you through an open door and ended up here. What are you doing?"

"_You_ are going home," I said.

"How?" he asked. For once, he wasn't sneering. He really didn't know.

I opened my mouth to tell him, then closed it. I didn't know, either. We hadn't gone through a normal worldgate. It was going to be very difficult to get him home, and we didn't have time.

"I don't know," I admitted, furious at myself. "You just stay in this temple until we get back."

"You don't know? You don't know how to get back _at all_?" He looked worried. He hadn't bargained on this.

"Well, not with such little time. Just stay here! Nothing will happen to you! Anyone can stay in a temple."

"No," he said firmly, regaining his confident poise. "I'm going to come with you and find out what's going on. If it has to do with Hogwarts, you shouldn't be doing it. You shouldn't even be there –_ untraditional wizards_."

I groaned. I was so sick of that.

"Harry and Ginny Potter were kidnapped by Nazgûl and a Sith Lord and we're trying to find the Jedi to see if they can lead us to the Sith," Dawna explained. "If you don't believe that, it's your problem. Besides, I don't think we need an underage wizard who doesn't have any magic that he's allowed to use along the way."

"Fae is allowed, even required, to do this because she's one of the only ones who can, and she's allowed to bring us along because we have powers of our own that we are allowed to use without supervision. She isn't supposed to be responsible for taking care of you," Evan added. "Fae, we need to go."

_Since when am I the leader of this mission?_ I wondered.

"It's not my fault that I'm not allowed to use magic!" Daymon shouted.

Evan glanced at me with a surprised expression on his face. It took me a moment to understand that he knew Daymon was jealous. I didn't think Dawna was even considering the idea yet.

We were starting to get funny looks from people passing by. We had been standing in one place arguing too long. (Of course, it's not like I'm an expert at alien expressions. Maybe this was their way of smiling.)

"Let's go now," I said. "We need to get this done. If Daymon wants to risk getting into a lot of trouble, and getting hurt, he can come. Just as long as he doesn't expect us to save him if he needs it."

"We still don't know how we're going to get there," Dawna reminded me.

"Evan?" I asked.

He smiled a little. "We don't have to. The Force arranged it all for us. Chances are good that that's Luke or whoever is the leader of the Jedi." He pointed to the next level down. Even though I had never seen a Jedi, I recognized the man he pointed to as one.

"There's an elevator," he added. "Or whatever they're called. Is Luke still alive? _Is_ that him?"

I nodded. "I'd bet it is. You'd better stay here, Daymon.

"This is your last chance, Daymon." Because it was Dawna who said this, it sounded like a threat. I quickly assured him it wasn't. I cringed inside, wondering how it could come about that I was being kind to a bully.

There were several "elevators" going up and down. They were large, roofless, and made of clear glass. The one we took was uncrowded, thankfully. I didn't want anyone to pay attention to us.

"How are you going to speak to him?" Daymon asked.

"We're assuming that he speaks the Speech fairly well. The common language of the Republic was the Speech two thousand years ago; though it's changed a lot by now, it should still be recognizable. Also, the common language of magicians is the Speech." I said.

The Jedi was wandering away from us with no particular appearance of caring what direction he was going in, although he certainly didn't look lost. We chased him through the crowds. Evan seemed to be able to lead us after him, as if he had a Force-bond that allowed him to follow the master of the Jedi even when he couldn't see him.

"I wish he could just know someone was following him and wait for us," I complained.

"It's not always good to be followed when you're the most famous man in the universe," Evan replied. It's true, but I was still annoyed that we were wasting precious time.

The Jedi was dressed all in black. He was alone. His skin was darker than the actor's in the movies, which wasn't surprising, since Luke was from a desert planet. He was older than I had expected, but younger looking than a fifty-year-old – which I think he was – from Earth. His hair was light brown. He finally noticed us following him and looked back, his eyes questioning.

"Go, Fae," Evan said.

I walked forward before I could lose my nerve. _I am not going to cry. I'm a wizard. Wizards aren't shy. _

I greeted Luke in the Speech and asked him if he was busy.

"Do you need help, Emissary?" he asked. Emissary is a polite name for a wizard on a mission. I had never been called Emissary before, but then, I had never done anything with people in my missions.

I nodded. "We do. But it's a long story."

"You need help from _me_? I'm only a Jedi. I don't have your wizardry." (It is true that wizards and Jedi generally don't work together. Their powers don't work like that.)

"'Only a Jedi'?" whispered Evan. It wasn't until later that I remembered he didn't understand the Speech. He couldn't have known what we were saying.

"Yes, from a Jedi. We are caught in something that is as much Jedi business as wizard business." I bit my lip nervously. We had been gone almost forty minutes. "I do not think that we have much time. We may have no time at all, or less."

"With any luck, the others can catch the Nazgûl," Dawna said.

Evan said, "It's really up to us. And we may already be too late."

"I'm Luke Skywalker."

"We know."

"Is your friend all right?" the Jedi asked. Evan looked more upset than I had ever seen him.

"He's worried that we have taken too much time and cannot help," I explained. "You see, someone we know was captured by the Sith, we think, and we do not know why. They may already be dead."

"The Sith?" he whispered. "Then the rumors are correct… are you sure it was one of the Sith?"

"I hope so, or we would have come all this way, and upset Evan, for nothing."

"I am not upset."

"Evan wants to be a Jedi," I told Luke. "He is a self-trained Jedi."

The Jedi nodded understandingly. "I was really self-trained, even though I sometimes had a master."

"Fae," Evan groaned. "You should have let me tell him about myself."

"You – Wait a minute!" I stared at Dawna and Evan and continued in English, "Neither of you can speak the Speech!"

The three of them looked at me for a minute.

"I thought anything could understand the Speech of Wizards," Evan said.

"Not humans, not usually."

Daymon said, "I can't understand anything. I thought you had taught them."

"I didn't! You've never understood me before. While we're on the topic, how could you see my spell? Does it have something to do with Evan's visions being passed on to us? That shouldn't have been possible, not in magic as I know it. Is it because we're related?"

Luke was watching us, waiting for me to speak to him so that he could understand. "My two friends understand what I have said to you, and they do not speak the Speech of Wizards. And the one who is not my friend has no idea what is happening. And my friends can see a spell that was only for me to see, and things as strange have been occurring since we met half a year ago."

Just as I said that, someone poked me in the shoulder. I turned to see the werewolf girl. Daymon's eyes widened. He recognized the girl that his werewolf-boggart had turned into.

"You," I whispered in the Speech. "You. Who… what… how?"

"You forgot the 'when where," said the girl in the same language. "Who, what, when where, how. Oh, and why."

"Kit, you're supposed to be helping our friends," said Dawna.

"Kit? Oh, yeah. That's what Quickbeam called her," said Evan.

She said in the Speech, "I came to tell you that Steven caught a Nazgûl and it said that they were all following a Sith Lord and his apprentice. Oh, and Steven thinks he killed the Nazgûl," She added in English, "Who's that?"

"That's Ryan Daymon. He's scared of werewolves," Dawna said, an evil smile crossing her face.

"Oh, is he. Well, we'll have to change that." She turned into a wolf. Daymon shrieked and stepped backwards.

"Still want to come with us, Daymon?" I asked. "This is our friend."

He swallowed and nodded. "I'm not letting you get all the credit for saving Hogwarts. You don't even belong there."

I thought it wouldn't be nice to tell him we knew he was jealous of us. I let the comment go.

"A shapshifting girl who appears out of thin air, three friends who have telepathy… It sounds like you have an interesting story," Luke said. "Do you have time to tell it?"

I looked at my watch. 12:48. "Quickly," I said. "I'm called Fae, this is Dawna, Evan, Daymon, and – and, characteristically, Kit has disappeared."

* * *

We gave Luke a short version of our story and explained what we were after.

Daymon constantly asked what we were saying. When Evan told him, he often had his own ideas of what had happened. Halfway through the story, Dawna took out her wand and silenced him. The charm didn't work too well, but at least Daymon's voice was quieter for a while.

I saw that Luke was staring at Dawna's fern-wand. "Dawna, your wand," I reminded her. She turned it into a stick of wood again. "Don't ask," I told Luke.

By the time we finished the story, we had nearly been gone an hour. I was getting very worried. Daymon was looking at us like we were wild animals about to attack. Luke was full of questions.

"You cannot hear each others' thoughts?"

"No," I replied.

"I have never heard of this. It is common with young wizards to be able to hear the thoughts of ones they work with. Many Jedi can send messages to each other when they are trying to. But you can see out of each other's eyes. It must be because you are related through one of the Great Powers."

Then his mind returned to the Sith. "What did the alien look like, exactly?"

We described him in the most detail we could. When we were finished, he looked very disturbed. "I knew him. I trained him. We were told he was dead three years ago." He sighed. "I would rather he be dead than a Sith. I am sure he is the one you are talking about. His home planet is the one that most of the Sith rumors are coming from. You should go there."

"How far?" I asked.

He smiled. "We never ask 'how far.' Especially when you can just use a worldgate. I think the one you came through is fairly selective, but there's another one close by. I'll take you. I'm not busy. I just finished talking to a senior wizard. That's why I was nearby to meet you."

"We were wondering," I said. "Even the will of the Force can't just make you appear for us."

He led us outside. He got a transport large enough for the five of us.

"We should go now." He helped us into the transport. Evan saw how I blushed when Luke touched my hand and raised his eyebrows. I blushed even more. Only the house cat knew that I used to have a crush on Luke Skywalker (and I hope she hasn't told anyone to fulfill her omniscient-narrator delusion).

"Daymon, you're sure you don't want to go back? You could still save Hogwarts. You would be more useful if you stayed at Hogwarts. Please. Please go back. You can't help here," I begged. "You'll be way out of your depth. We've all been doing magic for years."

"I say we drag him to the worldgate, push him through, and shut it," said Dawna.

"Dawna, please," I said, annoyed. "We don't have _time_."

Luke took the pilot's seat in the transport, and we took off. Once we were in the air, Dawna continued. "He's useless. He's helpless. He can't do any magic as powerful as what we'll need. I'm not even sure I can. I'm not even sure _Evan_ can!"

"Dawna, please," Evan said.

"Well, at least leave him here. We can't bring him along. He'll go home eventually."

"Dawna, _please!"_ we shouted together.

"That's enough," I said. "If he wants to meet dark forces way stronger than what he can cope with, that's not our problem."

"Still arguing about him?" Luke asked.

"Yes. I say it's his choice, Dawna says we should just throw him through the worldgate, and Evan –" I glanced at him.

"Evan says he might be helpful," Evan said dryly.

"Helpful!" I exclaimed.

"Particularly as a decoy."

"Bryant, when we're back at Hogwarts, I'm going to get you," Daymon growled.

"Surrounded by your cronies. You coward," Dawna taunted.

"Don't provoke him," Evan warned.

Not surprisingly, Luke seemed to be very interested in Evan. He was quite surprised when I told him that Evan's great-grandfather was an alien.

"What planet?" he asked.

"From Tatooine," said Evan shyly.

"Tatooine?" Dawna and I shouted together.

"You said Alpha Centauri," I said.

"Didn't you know that?" he asked. "Tatooine has two suns; Alpha Centauri A and B are a system together. Neither Tatooine nor Alpha Centauri are exactly near Coruscant."

We were staring at him.

"What's Tatooine?" asked Daymon.

"Muggle movie," we all said at once.

"Too many muggle movies around," he complained.

"Evan is from Tatooine," I explained excitedly to Luke.

"We could be related," he said thoughtfully. Evan looked like he was going to faint at the idea.

"Evan, you are obsessed," Dawna said quietly. "I don't get it. I thought Star Wars took place 'a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.' Were they lying?"

"Well, it obviously hasn't been a long time ago if Luke's only fifty-something now," I said.

"He's fifty?" Dawna asked, shocked. "He only looks thirty."

"People stay young a lot longer here," Evan explained.

"As for a galaxy 'far, far away,' Tatooine is on the Outer Rim. Coruscant is in another galaxy. Our galaxy is mostly autonomous planets. Those that never had a large enough population or just never created any lasting planet-wide governments became the Outer Rim territories of the Galactic Republic. Nearly all of Star Wars takes place far, far away. By muggle standards." Then, I went back to talking to Luke.

Evan told Luke his family's story through my translations. I think this upset Evan. He was finally talking to a Jedi and they couldn't even speak the same language. It also annoyed Luke that I would often stop talking to stare at the city. I could never have imagined such a busy, crowded place.

Somehow, we found out that Evan's mother's maiden name, and Evan's middle name, is Lucas. Luke found this amusing. Dawna and I found this frightening.

"What are the chances that your mother's name is a version of the greatest Jedi's and the same as the person who created Star Wars?" Dawna wondered.

"Very small," I replied. "Unless –"

Evan smiled slightly. "Unless they all come from the same name."

We looked at him. "So Luke is a common name on Tatooine?" asked Dawna.

"In the Republic in general."

"And, um, are you, um, related in any way to George Lucas?" I asked.

"How did you think he got the story for Star Wars?" Evan asked.

Dawna and I looked at each other. "We _so_ should have known that," she said.

Luke landed the transport. "Here. Fae, you should be able to deal with the worldgate." He stayed around to make sure I understood it.

"Here we go again," I said.

"Don't forget to bring Evan back when you have time," Luke reminded me.

"Do not worry. He will remind me every day, I am sure."

"You know," said Evan thoughtfully, "When I used to dream about meeting Luke Skywalker, Mum always said, 'Fate will bring you together someday.' I had no idea…" He looked so serious that I couldn't laugh.

"May the Force be with you!" Luke called as we left.

* * *

**Next: the battle!**


	12. Chapter 12: Nazgul

**Chapter 12**

**Nazgûl**

* * *

**I must correct myself, embarrassing as it is. "Fears" was not the longest chapter. This is. But I think that it seems shorter because more things happen. I really like it, actually.**

**As a reminder, this takes place around March 2002. **_**Attack of the Clones**_** came out in May of that year. The quote I refer to is, "You have interfered in our plans for the last time," Count Dooku to Yoda.**

* * *

It was night on the planet. The only light was a bluish shine that seemed to come from a moon. The atmosphere was thick and tasted funny.

Evan coughed. "Is this the right place?"

"Yes. The atmosphere is supposed to be breathable. I think it's foggy tonight," I told him.

"It's fine," said Dawna, taking a deep breath.

The fog muffled all sounds and dulled colors. There was a very eerie feeling that made me think of Hogwarts on Halloween.

Evan pointed down the hill we were standing on. There were lights that looked more like fire than electricity. "How civilized is this planet?"

"It's part of the Republic. It has to be civilized."

I was getting the creepy feeling that someone was watching me. Then I heard a soft cry.

"What are you doing here?" A man stepped out of the shadows.

It was Valuial Elessar. Our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

I stared. Dawna didn't miss a beat. "What are you doing here? And what's that?"

He was next to a thin, black horse.

"I am attempting to find Harry and Ginny Potter," he said as if we should have known that. "I assume you are doing the same?"

I nodded.

"How did you find your way here? What _is _that?" she asked.

"I traced the power left by the kidnapper like a bloodhound traces scent."

"Smart," I muttered, understanding what he meant, though not approving of the simile. "But why haven't you found them already? It's been an hour and forty minutes."

"It took a long time to trace the Potters."

Evan looked closer at the horse. "What is it?" he asked nervously. "Fae?"

I looked at it. It was hard to tell in the light, but I thought I recognized its deathly appearance. "Is that a thestrel?"

"Aye, it is. Thestrels are some of the only friendly magic horses left on Earth," said Elessar.

Evan looked at me. "Fae, I haven't seen anyone die."

"Neither have I," said Dawna. "And I see the thestrel."

"Daymon?" we asked together.

"What's a thestrel?"

"Do you see a horse by Professor Elessar?"

"A horse? You're seeing things. You are mad. The whole world is mad."

"We agree on something for once," Dawna joked.

Elessar looked very closely at us. "Is it possible –" He stopped suddenly and turned around, wand out. The thestrel pawed the ground like a nervous horse.

"Stupefy!" A bolt of red light shot from his wand. It met blue lightning in midair. The spell absorbed the lightning and flickered out.

I felt a dark presence nearby. It was not as evil and overpowering as the Lone Power. Actually, it seemed to not know exactly what it was doing. I had never been able to sense darkness before, except for the Lone Power. I understood that this new sense was from Evan and his abilities with the Force.

"Stu –"

The blue lightning connected with Elessar before he could finish the word, giving him the eerie look of a ghost lit by the blue moonlight. He crumpled on the ground.

"That was too easy," said a scornful girl's voice. "You would think…." The voice sighed.

I began to say a simple shield spell. The thestrel reared up and bared fangs. I stopped, too horrified at the sight of a carnivorous horse. I could see why these beings were considered evil.

The thestrel leaped forward. Some invisible force threw it backwards, and it fell down. It leapt to its hooves again faster than I could have believed.

_You hurt my rider, my friend, the son of kings! _its voice hissed silently.

Daymon was shaking next to me. He tried to say something, but only a choking sound came out. I hoped that that was from fear, not the dark power that I didn't understand yet.

"A killer horse," said the voice.

I finished the shield spell.

It was then that I realized the voice was speaking English.

"Oh, don't bother. I'm not going to hurt you. I'd get in trouble." A teenaged girl dressed in a cloak over tight clothes the color of the blue-tinted night stepped out of the dark blue shadows. Her hair appeared green-blonde with red-violet streaks and blue-black tips in the strange light. She shot the thestrel with the lightning. She looked at us closely and said curiously, "I know you."

Dawna's mouth dropped open. Disbelief filled her eyes. "Chelsea Golder?"

"Dawna Porter. What on Earth are you doing here?" She smiled slightly, mockingly. "Bad question. This isn't on Earth."

"Where did you go? You just were around for a semester of fourth grade, but then you disappeared. You would have been in my class – though maybe that's not a good thing…"

"You know her?" whispered Evan. The girls ignored him.

"I haven't been vaporized. I came here to stay. Master got tired of living on Earth. Remember what I told you? When you were arguing with someone about whether there were female Sith?"

Dawna swallowed. "That if there were a female Sith, it would be you. And that you would be one some day."

"And I hear you promised Elanor that if I became a Sith, you would be a Jedi? Even if you had to be my apprentice to learn how to kill me?" She was grinning now, her teeth ghostly blue.

"Who told you that? I don't need to be a Jedi, didn't you know? Even if I couldn't fight you myself, I have friends to help."

"Friends like him?" Elessar was trying to get up. She sent more lightning his way and he slumped down again. I had forgotten to include him and the thestrel in my spell. I wasn't sure if he was alive.

Dawna tensed. Evan tried to step forward, but I held him back. If she didn't know that he was a Jedi, we would have an advantage.

I looked at Elessar on the ground. He hadn't stirred. The thestrel was struggling to stay on its feet. I looked at Evan. He was shaking with fury. Dawna was calm. Daymon was shaking with fear. _What a great fighting group we have._

"Come on, then. Master wants to meet all rescuers. You _have_ come for Harry and Ginny? It's really no use. We'll give them back as soon as we are done with them. Come on. I'd hate to hurt you. Master would be furious, and I don't want to hurt Dawna, anyway."

She turned and started to walk away. I felt her pulling us with her. I concentrated on not moving. I let the shield spell go. I didn't need it anyway. Daymon took a step, then another. He looked back, frightened and pleading. I imagined my feet as glued to the ground and concentrated on the picture. Chelsea looked back. "Come on." Her voice was sweet and mocking but compelling. I took an unwilling step.

"We're not going with you," said Evan softly. "And you can't make us." His lightsaber was in his hand. It was as ghostly blue as the planet around it; for a moment, I wasn't sure if it was really there. "Go save Harry and Ginny," he told us. "I'll take care of her."

I recognized the Sith and Jedi from my vision at the beginning of the year.

"Try not to kill her," Dawna said. "I don't want to have that on my conscience."

"Neither do I," Evan said. Chelsea dropped her cloak and ignited her lightsaber. Evan waited. Chelsea struck out and he countered instantly.

We didn't even try to help. It would only make things worse. We ran. We ran downhill towards the fires. Dawna slid on the wet ground and fell on her face, digging her fingers into the mud to keep from rolling downhill. I helped her up and stopped to catch my breath and think for a moment. A few months ago, Dawna would have bit my hand if I had offered it to help her. She had changed.

"We need to slow down. No reason to die before we can save anybody," I said.

Daymon caught up with us then. "Do you know where you're going?"

I looked at Dawna. "I thought we knew. But now, I don't know how we could know."

"I know," she said.

"Ryan?" I said. It was strange to call him by his first name. "Could you stay here? And watch Elessar, and if you can, save Evan if he needs it?"

He looked at me disgustedly. "No. Not if you tell me to. Idiots." He ran downhill, not tripping once.

"You know it's our fault if he dies," I told Dawna.

"So what?" she replied, starting towards the fires. "We did warn him."

"We've never exactly been nice to him."

"Nice?" She stopped. "When has he ever been nice to us?"

"Good point." Uphill, I could see the glow of red and blue lightsabers meeting and hear Chelsea's mocking voice. I suddenly knew that we had been gone two hours and three minutes and were too late. I looked at my watch. It was exactly 2:03. _Evan's gift again,_ I thought.

_The future ones can be changed, but the past ones always come true,_ Evan had said about his prophecies. Was this one of the past – that something had happened to the Potters, or the future – that we would find that we were too late? Would it come true or not? I ran to the fires.

I stopped at the bottom of the hill. There was a ring of six wood fires surrounded by stones. They glowed red, yellow, green, blue, violet, and white. The fires surrounded a pit in the ground several times the depth of a human. The sides of the pit were alternately sloping and vertical rock. A wildcat – Dawna – stood next to me.

"Seven fires. How did they do the colors so that they wouldn't be changed by the light?" she whispered with a human mouth.

"Six fires."

"Seven. The seventh is on the other side, there. It's black. Maybe you can't see it with your puny human eyes."

"This is all they can send for rescuers? One little boy?"

I recognized the voice of the alien with the pages. I saw him in the pit talking to Daymon. Daymon couldn't understand a word, I knew.

"You promised we weren't going to save him," Dawna reminded me.

"Daymon is down in the pit and so are Harry and Ginny. We might as well save them all."

"Daymon's evil. Like Draco Malfoy. I bet he wanted to come to help the Sith."

"Dawna, you know something? I think Daymon would have been in Gryffindor in the old system."

Dawna stared at me. I had a picture of Evan slipping in the mud and holding up his lightsaber in defense against the oncoming Sith. I shut out the picture and started towards the fires.

The flames reached out to meet one another as I neared. "They let Daymon through!" I whispered. "Maybe they thought he was harmless.

"Don't think I can't hear you. I'll get you as soon as I'm done with these. Then maybe there can be fifteen Nazgûl," said a voice from the fires. It gave a cold laugh.

I said a spell against fire, natural fire, over us and stuck a hand into the yellow flames. I felt a painful tingling feeling, but no burning. "Let's go, Dawna." I took the wildcat by the scruff of its neck like I do to the house cat and dragged her through.

The tingling spread through my body. I couldn't see anything. I felt like my entire body had fallen asleep and was waking up slowly and painfully. It was all I could do to keep going. When we came out the other side, I could hardly stand. Dawna had turned into a human and was holding my arm, trying to hold me up at the same time she was being held up.

"That was stupid," she whispered, but I knew that she was just upset and knew that it was needed.

My eyes cleared slowly. At first, I thought I was still seeing things wrong. But then I realized that everything had changed inside the fires.

The light was dark red instead of blue. The fires had made a dome over our heads and had become grey where the colors met. There were seven bodies on the ground. The purple-skinned Sith lord stood near Daymon's body.

"Congratulations for surviving the fire," he said. "It was made to kill wizards."

"Maybe I _am_ dead," I gasped. "Maybe I'm a ghost."

"You do not look like one. I can still have you for my Nazgûl." He stepped towards me.

I whispered a shield spell.

Blue fire struck the shield. I physically staggered under the mental weight of holding the spell up.

"I can keep this up longer than you can," the Sith taunted.

"No…you…can…not," I replied through gritted teeth.

"Yes…I…can," he imitated.

"You sound like a five-year-old," Dawna commented as calmly as if she was talking about History of Magic class.

I squeezed my hands into fists. I knew that I would have marks from my nails in my palms by the time this ended – if it ended. The fire was getting overwhelming. I could see nothing but blue flame in the shape of our shield.

"Stop it," said a voice.

The fire disappeared. I blinked and my eyes adjusted again to the new light as I tried to move my fingers. Evan, tired and bruised but alive, stood in front of the Sith lord. The wall of fire had become seven small fires again. The light was the blue moonlight of this world.

"Your apprentice is waiting for you," Evan said to the Sith. He pointed to the hill where he had fought Chelsea. "If you want her to live, you have to help her very soon."

"You dirty little Jedi," he hissed, sounding more than ever like a spoiled child. Then he called, "Rise, my loyal servants!"

From each body came a dark shape forming into a humanlike being. Five others rose from the inner edge of the fires. There was one more, trailing like a shadow. Several shapes scattered. One came towards Dawna and me and one to Evan. The Sith raced out of the circle to the hill where Evan and Chelsea had fought. _Does he really care about her or does he want her as a slave? _ I wondered.

The dark shape came closer and closer. The air got colder and darker. For the first time, I felt despair. Whatever they wanted Harry and Ginny for was finished. We had come too late.

"Dementor," Dawna whispered.

That meant something in some part of my mind, but I could not remember what. I was too far into my past. Memories. Watching my sister die. Whether my eyes were open or closed, I could see her. The Lone Power was making it that way.

"Willow," I whispered. It was her middle name, but she hated her first name, Lillian.

"Expecto Patronum," Dawna managed to say.

I found a memory of my eighth birthday. It was too sad for the dementor to take away but happy enough for me to use it against the dementor.

_It is the first day of spring, but it snowed last night. Willow and I are making snow forts so we can have a snowball fight. She is giving me extra time because it is my birthday and I can't lose a game on my birthday. Mum and Dad watch._

The dementor's effects reminded me that this had been our last snowball fight. It reminded me that my sister was a wizard already although I didn't know it. It reminded me that she would die a few months after the memory, which always made the thought of that birthday sad. I reminded the dementor of how much fun we had had.

"Expecto Patronum," said Dawna a little louder. I thought I saw a flicker of light that stopped the dementor for a moment, but then it glided closer.

The dementor stood over me. I saw no scabbed hands. I saw nothingness where hands should have been. I saw a gleaming sword on its belt. It was a Nazgûl as well as a dementor.

This is what they were making with the kidnapped people. Nazgûl.

I wasn't going to let them take me, too.

_Willow. _ I took a deep breath. _I'll see you soon. But until then… I miss you._

The dementor/Nazgûl's cold non-hands touched me. I let go of the memory of Willow playing in the snow with me. It floated to the strange being, taking part of me with it.

_Sirius Black should have done this long ago,_ I thought. _He would have escaped sooner._

The dementor/Nazgûl collapsed, overwhelmed by the powerful magic of joy and love. Light flickered around it. I slid to the ground, exhausted.

"Fae?" Evan pulled me to my feet. "You fainted."

"Again?" I said, thinking of the ride across the lake. "Why am I the only one who faints?"

"Whine about it later," warned Dawna.

Three dementor/Nazgûls were crowding around us. One other, which I guessed was the one Steven had tried to kill, dragged behind. The one I had hurt tried to rise but failed. Two stood by the captives, who were stirring slightly. The other six had left the planet.

I tried to throw light at them. The coldness was spreading, and I was too tired. I couldn't do a spell in a situation like this.

"Come on. You are still people inside, aren't you?" Dawna coaxed.

The Nazgûls came closer. The air was colder and darker. I had done too much that day. I couldn't keep going.

"Dawna, you idiot, stop trying to turn them good and help me!" I shouted. Or tried to shout.

Suddenly, something changed. The whole dark, blue-colored world seemed different, as if my eyes had finally focused properly. I felt stronger.

_Uh-oh,_ said a voice in my head. Not one of my voices. Dawna.

_What just happened? _I wondered.

_Telepathy._ That was Evan.

_Weird._

_Brilliant._

_Freaky._

I threw a bolt of fire to the Nazgûl. They slowed down. I suddenly realized that if I destroyed the Nazgûl that had been created from Harry and Ginny, I might end up destroying their souls. I would rather have the Nazgûl.

_Actually, if you let Harry and Ginny lose their souls, fewer people will suffer than if you let the Nazgûl live, _Evan thought.

_Let's just save the captives,_ Dawna suggested.

We ran from Harry and Ginny's Nazgûl. They were scaring me. I _knew_ these people. One was my _teacher_.

We scampered to the captives when the Nazgûl didn't seem to be watching. Of course, they don't have eyes, so we couldn't tell, but they seemed to be paying attention to a woman that I couldn't quite see. She was sitting up and looking blank and confused. One of the Nazgûl leaned down to her. They were getting taller and taller.

"Lumos," I whispered. The light made the Nazgûl turn our way.

_Now what?_ we thought together.

_Can I even do any magic anymore?_ I wondered, exhausted.

_Yes, you can,_ said Evan comfortingly. He gave me some more energy.

_Don't. That's yours. I feel guilty._

The Nazgûl had turned back to the captives, and one was about to strike the woman.

"Expecto Patronum!" a boy's voice screamed. "Incendio! Deletrius! Expelliarmus! Incendio. Petrificus…Totalus… Expecto…Patronum…In…cen…di…o…" Daymon shouted every spell he could think of to use against these strange monsters. All the spells had one result: a dementor exploded. He collapsed on the ground.

_How could _he_ kill one? _Dawna wanted to know. She was jealous.

"Incendio!" I shouted. A blue fire started on the ground. It began to spread so that it surrounded the three of us, the captives, and the six Nazgûl that were still on the planet. Dawna took her wand out and aimed it at the Nazgûl. She repeated the spell over and over, trying to produce more than sparks. The dementor/Nazgûls reached to us, breathing in that strange way dementors have that sounds like they were breathing in all the warmth in the planet. The Nazgûls that were fueled on human souls took out swords. Evan took out his lightsaber.

Part of our fire moved back and made an entrance to the circle on the other side of the captives. The violet-skinned alien stepped through, looking absolutely furious. He was followed by Chelsea, limping and bleeding.

"What did you do to her?" Dawna asked Evan out loud, for Chelsea's benefit.

"You have interfered with our plans too much," said the Sith.

"Sounds like something that some Sith is going to say in the next Star Wars movie to Yoda," Evan said dreamily.

We all stared at him.

"And he obviously didn't manage to kill Yoda, although he may have interfered, so maybe we're safe."

"Funny," said Chelsea to Evan. "You didn't seem crazy when I fought you."

We stood there for a full minute. It must have made an odd scene. The nearly dead bodies were the only things between us. Dementor/Nazgûls floated around us. We all just looked at each other. I guessed that the dementor/Nazgûls' thoughts were the same as ours: _what now?_

"Attack," said the Sith quietly.

The dementor/Nazgûls rushed to obey. We were surrounded, and they were closing in.

_There weren't so many before,_ Dawna thought. _Were there?_

_I don't know. Maybe he called some back to help kill us, _Evan suggested.

I was frightened when I couldn't find the memory of my eighth birthday until I remembered that I had destroyed a dementor with it. Instead, I found the memory of seeing my little brother for the first time. Dawna found a memory of flying as an eagle. Evan used the memory of Luke Skywalker telling me to be sure to bring Evan back. We laughed when we saw his chosen memory. Then we said the spell together.

"Expecto Patronum!"

Evan's rabbit leaped out of his pocket where it had been hiding and turned into a patronus.

_What is with that rabbit?_ I wanted to know. _It flies through a train window and introduces you to us, makes friends with a werewolf, becomes our patronus…_

_I knew it was a good pet to bring,_ Evan thought smugly.

The rabbit/patronus drove back the Nazgûl to the Sith lord and apprentice. The Nazgûl, their minds not being created to understand good and evil, tried to attack the Sith. The lord screamed, in a language I didn't recognize, "Leave me alone!" They backed off, a bit confused. At his orders, they returned to attack us. The patronus had disappeared.

Drawing on our combined energy and power, I said a spell to make a fire and sent it after the dementor/Nazgûl. Fire was one thing that both dementors and Nazgûl feared. The flames destroyed all the weaker, dementor-fueled Nazgûl, but the stronger ones, fueled on human souls, remained.

We prepared to face the five Nazgûl. _Here we go,_ I thought. _Let's pray that we don't destroy their souls._

_There were fewer before. I'm sure now,_ thought Evan wearily.

_How are we going to – _began Dawna.

_Don't even ask,_ I replied.

We had no idea what to do, since the fire hadn't harmed them. But we had to do something fast, and, with our connection to each other, we were getting stronger every minute.

_Memories worked before,_ Evan thought so quietly we almost couldn't hear him.

We shuddered, remembering how it had felt for me to give away my memory – like I had given up part of my soul.

_Feelings,_ I suggested as the Nazgûl closed in.

_What were the words that Frodo used? _Dawna asked. I remembered the names.

"O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!" we cried together. It slowed the Nazgûl only a little.

Then, Dawna had an idea. "You," we said in the Speech, pointing to the closest Nazgûl, "are a soulless rabbit." When you lie in the Speech of Wizards, your lie often becomes true.

A white rabbit, blue from the light, stood on the ground. Its cloak disappeared and its sword fell to the ground. A butterfly-like shape floated from it and raced to a body.

The rabbit looked around, gave a halfhearted hop, and stood still.

_That was definitely the weirdest piece of magic I have ever seen,_ I thought.

A frightened thought crossed Evan's mind and he reached for his rabbit. _Good. That's not my rabbit. It's just a clone of it._

_Attack of the Clones! _I thought. _We don't even have to wait until May to see it!_

_That seemed awfully easy. I hope it works again,_ thought Evan skeptically.

Another Nazgûl started to draw its sword. "You are a soulless rabbit," we said. "And your sword is mud." The butterfly shape flew to Ginny. Now two little white rabbits stood next to each other. I had never known that a rabbit could look so confused.

We turned to the next one. "You are a soulless rabbit, and your sword has evaporated."

"No!" shouted the Sith lord. The soul went to one of the women I didn't recognize.

"You are a bunny," we told him.

"It doesn't work on people who can think," it said coldly.

"Oh, well. We can get rid of you when we are done with these," Evan said.

We pointed to the next Nazgûl. "You are a –"

"ENOUGH!" roared a huge voice. The captives that were awake seemed to faint. Chelsea collapsed on the ground. Her master knelt in the mud. We stumbled but stayed standing.

I looked up to see a towering dark shape. "Más bello y caído, salutaciones y desefiancia!" I said before I could think. Our minds had returned to the Go Fánach pages of the manual. I humbly apologized in the Speech. I couldn't believe I had greeted the Lone Power in Spanish. "Fairest and fallen, greetings and defiance." These were the proper words.

The huge shadow had become a tall, dark-haired young man. "Greetings to you, little wizards," It sneered. "And farewell. My servants have failed, but perhaps it is not their fault. They never expected to meet three united children who can use all three kinds of magic. But _I_ will not allow you to destroy any more of my Nazgûl. I have spent thousands of years recreating these beings! You will not destroy them now! Not after all my work."

_Like master, like servant,_ Evan commented. _I can see where that Sith lord got its winning personality._

"I HEARD THAT!" The man's handsome face twisted in rage. He reached out –

"All Nazgûl are soulless rabbits!" Dawna cried in the Speech. "And always will be."

Two Nazgûl turned into terrified rabbits. A man and Daymon received their souls.

"Yes, you too," Dawna said to the last. The soul flew to another woman.

_Harry's soul is missing,_ we thought together.

The Lone Power rose. Its shadow blotted out the glowing, blue moon. Our side of the planet grew dark.

I said the shield spell. Evan took my left hand and Dawna my right. Evan and Dawna held each other's hands, so we made a triangle. I wished the Lone Defender could come to help us, but we would have to rely on our connection with It.

_Everyone is born for a purpose,_ Evan thought quietly.

_Willow…_

"You shall see your sister soon," the Lone Power told me.

We were slammed by Its power. White light exploded around us, blinding us. I stood against it with the power borrowed from Dawna, Evan, and the Lone Defender. We were aware that we were now the only conscious beings on the dark side of the planet, including the two Sith lying nearby. We were reminded of one of the dreams I told Dawna about, the one where I was the only conscious being on Earth. We all took out our wands, and Evan took out his lightsaber. For once, Dawna's wand wasn't a fern. It was a sword, shining in the blue light of Evan's lightsaber and the silver light of my wand. Our weapons were the only light we could see.

"Would you like to try again?" I asked softly.

It saw us properly now. Not just as three united wizards, not as three young, powerful, and exceptionally gifted magicians, but as descendants of Its twin.

It reached out and struck again. We stood the blow.

"You know," It said, "if I can't destroy you –"

"I have read _High Wizardry_. I have already read how eloquent you can get when explaining how simple it would be to start a nuclear war on Earth."

"If that is what you wish…" It laughed.

"No," someone new said. I recognized the voice, but could not quite place it.

The Lone One turned.

"No, You will not gain this victory, O Dark Lord."

_Elessar!_ We were no longer alone. I searched for our teacher, but could not see more than a meter in any direction.

The Lone One laughed harder. We covered our ears, but we still heard Its laughter. "You cannot do anything to me anymore," It said.

"And that is exactly my strength. You cannot kill me, for I, Valuial Elessar, son of Eradan, son of –"

"Professor!" we shouted together.

"– in short, descendent of King Aragorn Elessar, am already dead."

We could see him then. We saw that Professor Valuial Elessar was a ghost, glowing in the light of Evan's lightsaber.

_Oh, no._

_The curse of the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher strikes again._

I could barely tell who was thinking what anymore. I was hardly even sure which thoughts were mine!

_The Lone One's really distracted. Elessar's driving It crazy!_

_Elessar _is _being really annoying. I mean, it's one thing to become a ghost because you don't want to die. But it's another entirely to _enjoy_ being half-dead. _

_The Lone One must be so frustrated. Elessar isn't even scared of It._

_It can't control a ghost as well as It can control a living person._

We laughed. While Elessar was talking, we called the last of the dementor/Nazgûl back to us. We turned them into rabbits before the Lone Power realized what we had done.

One last Nazgûl, the one with Harry's soul, stood in the circle of long-dead fires. It picked up one of the rabbits.

We, Elessar, and the Lone Power turned to it.

"Good," said the Lone One to the Nazgûl. "Bring your comrades back."

"No!" we shouted.

Elessar glided to the Nazgûl. We mentally reached for the charm to liberate Harry's soul.

It wasn't there. We couldn't remember the words in the Speech!

"Nice try," thundered the Lone Power. It had grown. It was cloaked and hooded, looking like a giant Nazgûl. "You will not be able to do that anymore!"

"But _I_ will," said Elessar's ghost. "You are a – are a soulless –"

Our rabbit jumped from Evan's cloak and leapt on the Nazgûl.

"RABBIT!" we shouted with Elessar.

The last Nazgûl disappeared, leaving a butterfly shape, a rapidly melting cloak, and two white rabbits, one very confused and one, Evan's pet, cold and stiff. The Lone One screamed.

_We hurt It that badly? _one of us wondered.

_Two thousand years of work … I wouldn't want it all to all go to waste, if _I _were the Lone Power, would you?_

"You –" It started.

"Good-bye," we said tauntingly and threw our worst spell at It. It screamed harder. The two Sith began to awaken, as did the captives.

_Too bad we could only know each other for half a year._

_It's been fun._

_Well, not exactly fun, but interesting._

We struck again with our most powerful spell. We felt three other spells fly past us at the same time. The blow rocked the entire planet. Our legs would not hold up any longer and we fell into the mud, now charred by our battle.

We felt the Lone Power leave the scene. The sky was red as the planet's sun began to rise.

"They are alive," said a voice in the Speech. Steven stood over us.

"Elessar?" Leianna's voice asked in surprise.

"I am not _quite_ dead yet," our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher joked.

We managed to laugh weakly. The last thing Evan saw was Luke kneeling next to the Sith master and apprentice. The last thing Dawna saw was Kit cradling our rabbit and trying to warm it. My eyes were already closed.

* * *

**All that is left are a few explanations…**


	13. Chapter 13: Explanations

**Chapter 13**

**Explanations**

**My favorite chapter, almost, because mysteries are cleared up, not added to.**

We stood in a meadow. The sky was a perfect shade of blue and there were a few clouds.

_Where are we?_

_Timeheart. _Timeheart is where the Powers that Be live and where people go when they die.

_Are we dead?_

_We don't feel dead._

_How do you feel dead?_

We didn't know.

_Willow isn't here._

They knew all about Willow now. More, maybe, than I had known before our minds had joined.

_Wizards sometimes come here and they're not dead –_

_I've heard of it happening to Jedi –_

_You're so obsessive, Evan._

_Hey, at least we can still remember that we are different people._

_But we aren't, really._

_Not anymore._

A pig approached us. We forgot the proper words to greet the Transcendent Pig and asked, as Leianna had suggested so long ago (six months), "What are we here for?"

"You were supposed to ask me what the meaning of life is," it told us.

"Same thing," we said. "Besides, you must get sick of hearing the same thing every time you meet someone."

"Of course." It looked at us and said quietly, "As to what are you here for, I believe you will be able to understand the answer to everything soon enough. Maybe by tomorrow night."

"What _is_ the meaning of life?" we asked as it left.

It seemed to smile. "Figure it out for yourself."

The three of us walked on. We wondered if we would see any dead people. After all, we were in Timeheart. I kept looking for Willow. Evan kept looking for dead Jedi.

"Death is not as peaceful as they lead you to believe," a voice said.

We turned in unison.

"It is if you die with a clear conscience," said another, one that I recognized.

Two Jedi came into view. They started light, transparent, and fuzzy, but gradually became clearer and more defined. We recognized Yoda right away. The other took a bit longer, but we saw that it was Mace Windu. The odd thing was that we did not notice that Mace was almost three times Yoda's height. They were not exactly the same height, but neither was one taller than the other. That's the way things are in Timeheart.

_He's not talking like he usually does, _we whined to each other. Yoda had been the second voice.

"Peace," Evan said quietly in Galactic Basic. The two Jedi turned to us. We were shocked and even frightened that Evan could speak alone.

"What is this? Three living children in Timeheart?" Yoda asked, amused.

Mace Windu looked at us thoughtfully. His face was tired and sad. I hadn't thought anyone could be tired in Timeheart. "Three of the Light Warrior's children." The Light Warrior is another name for the Lone Defender.

"Yes, I see, I see. That would explain it." Yoda smiled kindly.

"In the movies, you talk differently." We regretted the words as soon as we said them.

"There is only one way to speak the Speech," Mace Windu explained. "Yes, he does speak in an old-fashioned manner when he speaks Galactic Basic."

"Evan, Fae, and Dawna. Oh, yes, know that I do," he added in Galactic when he saw our surprise at knowing our names. "Need to learn from the Jedi you do. Training Evan needs. Training you all need to have separate minds. Share every thought you must not. Go to the Jedi." The last sentence was in English.

"How can you speak English?" we asked.

"Yoda enjoys traveling to unknown planets. He must have been to yours once," Mace Windu explained.

"A long time ago that was," Yoda continued.

He turned to leave, but Mace Windu was not ready. He told us, as if to explain what we had heard, "I nearly killed Darth Sidious, but I could not. So many people died. I failed. So death isn't always peaceful."

We smiled. "Mace – Master Windu, we do not mean to offend you, but the light side was getting complacent. In order to have balance, the Dark Side must have a chance to be the leading side of the Force. Then, when all becomes light again, and the light side has worked for it, balance can come. You believed you could save the galaxy, but there needed to be darkness for some years. There is balance now." We added as an afterthought, "The wizards did not do any better. Most swore to help the Emperor."

"They had to. He would have had them executed if they had not. The galaxy needed them, and even Sith rulers are better than anarchy." He smiled sadly, shrugged, and left with Yoda.

Willow appeared where they had once been. "Fae. I love you," she said. "Go home now. Find some peace; stop dreaming of me. You deserve it."

* * *

"Oh, Fae," Dawna said in a singsong voice.

It almost hurt to hear her speak alone.

_What do you want?_

She wasn't sure that she liked our connected minds.

_Fae, I've been awake for an hour. Evan for fifteen minutes. You sleepyhead!_

_I want to go back to sleep. You're stronger than I am._

Our combined minds stopped in stunned silence.

_It's true. I'm the least connected to the Lone Defender._

They knew this was something entirely new for me, to admit that I was the weakest. In all the stories I had ever made up, I was the hero.

_You're still a hero._

_True… Do I have to get up?_

_Well, Madam Pomfrey will be angry that we woke you up early, but we have been waiting._

_Madam Pomfrey?_

She sighed._ We're in the hospital wing, don't you know?_

_We're back in Hogwarts!_

_Yes! And my rabbit lived, too! Kit saved it. _We were all happy and relieved to be safe.

I sat up and stretched. My body ached, even after healing spells.

_Interesting dreams last night._

We laughed quietly.

Madam Pomfrey noticed that we were all awake and came to check on us. We complained to each other in our minds about her constant worrying. We were excused from classes for a day, and we were sent to the headmistress' office.

Besides Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Harry, Ginny, and the ghost of Elessar were waiting. Leianna, Tom, and Steven arrived soon after we did. Somehow, there were chairs for all eleven of us (Elessar didn't need one).

Steven held out a small device. "This is for you, Evan." He showed us how to turn it on. A holographic picture of Luke appeared.

"It's a comlink," Luke's hologram said. "Steven made it so it would work at Hogwarts, even if it is technology. He also fixed it to translate into English. I wanted to see this meeting."

"You'd think, with all their technology, they could make realistic holograms," I managed to say alone. Holograms come in one color: blue.

"You have a lot of explaining to do," Ginny said.

"So do you," Steven, Leianna, and Tom said with the three of us.

_We're talking together! Don't tell me we're going to have a mental link with the other wizards, too!_

The teachers made us tell about the hunt for the manual pages. We had to first tell them about our visit to the woods on Halloween. I think Harry was reminded of his own school days. Professor McGonagall said that we should have told them what we were doing. We would have gotten into trouble, but they would have understood. Then, the other three wizards explained their story.

After we left to find the Jedi, Steven and Kit had gone into the woods. (They didn't explain who Kit was, just mentioned "a wizard friend.") Leianna described how she and Tom had stayed behind at Hogwarts, both to defend it if needed and to make excuses for our absence.

After that, we told our story. We got to the point where the other wizards came to save us. Then Steven explained that Luke had gotten worried, couldn't contact us, somehow talked to Kit (there is a complicated way for people in the magical network to communicate with others without a comlink or manual), and the four wizards (counting Kit) got to Coruscant, found Luke, and they all went to save us.

"I'm very glad I don't remember this," Harry said.

"You were the worst," we said. "Your dementor."

"That is because he is the most powerful," Luke said.

"I should have been able to resist. Shouldn't I?" Harry asked, sounding irritated.

"You had no time to resist. Besides which, it is harder to resist a spell when you don't understand it," Luke comforted him.

"What happened to the Sith?" Leianna asked.

"The apprentice was sent back to a magical school in the United States of America. They have promised to supervise her well. We can still hope. Her master, my apprentice…" he sighed. "He is going to be under supervision at a temple of the Lone Defender. The one you came through, in fact. He never actually caused any permanent damage, so the non-magic courts will leave him alone. Still, he has to be watched. He is not allowed to use the Force."

"Who were the other captives?" Dawna asked. "Harry –"

_Mr. Potter._

"Sorry, the Potters, Daymon, and who else?"

Elessar explained, "Three authors of true magical stories given to muggles."

"Who?"

"Must you know?"

"Yes."

"Diane Duane, George Lucas, and J. K. Rowling. And also J. R. R. Tolkien's grandson."

We all burst out laughing.

"Their memories have been properly modified. This is all a dream to them. Of course, they think that they made up their stories themselves, too…" Ginny said.

"Now, _you_ have some explaining to do," we told the adults.

"We do?" Professor McGonagall asked innocently. It was a tone of voice I had never expected to hear from her.

"Yeah, what am I doing here?" asked Dawna.

"Ask the Transcendent Pig," Luke suggested.

"We already did," we said. Evan continued, "It said we would know soon."

"All right," Professor McGonagall sighed. "If you care so much."

"We've been wondering all year what an American shapeshifter was doing at Hogwarts. And why are there so many manual-trained wizards here?" Steven asked. "And you know that everyone else is wondering, too, and not all of them are nice about it."

"When Leianna took her Wizard's Oath, we worried about what to do," said Professor McGonagall. "She had to come to Hogwarts, since the rest of her family had come here. But she had a partner – Tom – who was not on the Hogwarts list – wizards usually are muggles until they take their oath – and we did not want to separate them. Many wizards work best with a partner. We have been wondering for years whether we should allow all eleven-year-old wizards and witches to come to Hogwarts, regardless of their methods of using power.

"So we decided to do this," she continued. "We looked up all the eleven-year-old wizards in England. There were two besides Leianna and Tom. And then, there was a girl from an American wizarding family that no American school would take because she was a shapeshifter, and they were –" she looked embarrassed "– afraid of her."

We laughed aloud.

"You're from a wizarding family?" Tom asked Dawna. "Did you know that?" he asked us.

"Not until yesterday, when our minds were joined," we replied.

"No one knows what to do with a shapeshifter," Ginny went on. "But we decided to try. Her family had been ignored by the usual wizarding world for too many generations. We decided to invite her to Hogwarts."

"Of course, there was also Evan. We were going to invite him, anyway. He is the only Jedi on Earth, and Jedi are, well, special," Harry said. "And there was another girl from Hogsmede who had strange powers we don't quite understand. We invited her, but she never sent a message to tell us she wasn't coming, and she never came."

The door of the office opened, and Kit walked in. She was wearing a shirt that said "Werewolves Rock" and a headband with kitty ears. "Are you _quite _sure she never came?"

We all stared with open mouths. We realized that she wasn't really a "little" girl, as we had thought her to be, anymore and could actually be our age.

The three of us had liked having her as our secret. We were annoyed that other people knew about her.

Only Luke didn't seem surprised. When she said, "Peace, Master Skywalker," and bowed gracefully, he bowed back as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world for her to appear.

"Who are you?" Ginny asked.

"Kitten Madra, Invisible Werewolf, Self-Taught Witch, and troublemaker-in-chief," Kit said confidently. We snorted in suppressed laughter.

"Have you been here all year?" Professor Flitwick asked.

She shrugged. "Pretty much. I mostly lived in the Forest, though."

"Do your parents –" began Ginny.

"No, I've had to fake actually being at school. They will be pretty annoyed. But, no offense meant, it was much more educational to learn from Quickbeam, the trees, and centaurs than from human teachers. And, besides, I did read people's work at night and study in the library, so I didn't miss anything."

"How did you get around Hogwarts without us noticing?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"Easy." She began to pull something from her pocket. It was made of shimmering material, and her hand disappeared inside it. It took her a minute to pull it all the way out; then she threw it around her body. She disappeared. "Told you I'm invisible," said her disembodied voice.

The teachers, we could tell, were extremely annoyed that they had not noticed her.

She pulled it off. "So, I have strange powers? I never knew that."

"We don't understand your powers. Do you have a wand?" Ginny asked.

"Yes. Two. One I got from the shop, one I made in the forest with unicorn hair."

"How did you get the centaurs to let you live with them?" Harry asked impatiently.

"Oh, that was easy. They like me. Like I told you, I'm a werewolf."

Harry, Ginny, McGonagall, Flitwick, and even Elessar went silent with disbelief.

"How is it that we did not know this?" asked Elessar.

"I'm not a dangerous werewolf. I keep my mind even in transformation. I can even transform at will, although it's easier closer to the full moon."

"Then you aren't a werewolf, you're an animagus," Harry said.

"I was bitten by a werewolf when I was five and have had these powers ever since."

"But that is impossible!" Elessar protested.

"Nothing is impossible, but perhaps it is improbable," Luke corrected.

"How did you manage to be able to control your transformation?" Harry asked.

"Oh, that was so easy. I looked for a werewolf."

Nobody understood what she meant.

"I wanted to get bitten."

"You what?" we exploded.

"I wanted to be a werewolf. So, I went out on a full moon night and looked for one to bite me. It didn't hurt much. My parents never knew. I assumed I would be able to control my transformation, so I could."

The teachers looked at each other and sighed. "Kitten, we need to talk to you. The rest of you may go," said McGonagall. "Oh, yes, a hundred points each for Porter, Laurence, and Bryant, and fifty each for the other three."

"I hope to see the three of you when you are on vacation," Luke said. "I think you will need my help. May the Force be with you."

"And with you," we replied.

He bowed slightly and his hologram went out.

"I think I shall be able to help you liberate your minds from each others'," Elessar said.

We left and discussed telepathy, werewolves, soul-stealing, and ghost teachers with the other wizards. They gave our joined minds a name: Faevawna. They always call us this when we are together. We realized that the curse of the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher had been broken. Elessar had died (fortunately, he had a son, or Aragorn's line would have died out), but he was going to stay for more than one year. Actually, he was going to stay forever.

The oddest thing happened at the end of the year. Elessar came into Professor Binns' class to talk to one of the students.

"The two ghost teachers in one room," I commented to Jennifer. I said it too loud and Binns heard.

"What is she talking about? Ghost teachers?" it asked itself.

"We are the two ghost teachers of Hogwarts," Elessar replied.

"I'm not a – am I a ghost?"

The shock was too much for it to bear. It disappeared.

"Oh, dear," said Elessar. "We seem to have laid Professor Binns' spirit to rest."

We looked at each other and began to laugh hysterically.

"Must be another curse," Ryan said through laughter. "No two ghosts can teach at once."

**I have an epilogue, and then, the story is finished. Come on, don't I get **_**any**_** more reviews?**


	14. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

The rest of the year was good. We won the Quidditch cup and came second to Earth in house points by thirteen points. Ryan Daymon was not exactly our friend, but he was nice to us, and we were popular because everyone wanted to hear our story. Elessar managed to make our connection bearable, but we still shared every thought, feeling, and dream.

Then I went home, expecting everything to be normal for a while, and started writing the whole story down. Then, I found out that the cat at my house is claiming to be one of the Powers that Be… I mean, I know it's said that wizards' pets get strange, something about wizard power leaking, but this is a bit too much! Then her nine older kittens, which were given to families around the neighborhood, started claiming to be the nine muses…and the runt of the litter, which we kept, claims to be the tenth muse…the muse of fantasy…

I guess nothing will ever be normal.

Anyway, between writing and spending time with my family, I took Evan and Dawna to Coruscant to talk with Luke. Evan is definitely going to get trained on his vacations from school. I think Luke admires his patience. We've already taken Evan to make a lightsaber. He's stopped dreaming about _meeting_ Jedi most nights and now dreams about _being_ one.

Luke has also started teaching us how to separate our minds and keep our thoughts to ourselves. We don't share dreams every night anymore. That's a huge relief.

It's almost September, and we're going to be second years at last! We have had several dreams of how this year is going to be stranger than ever. That might be because of Evan's gift of prophecy, but we would be pretty stupid not to work that out. I mean, Kit is going to be in our house…

Dawna was disappointed when she learned this. _There will be fourteen second-years in Sun!_

_So what?_

_Well, I was just starting to think that thirteen is a lucky number after all…_


End file.
